The Lord Mayor for Kampala city, Erias Lukwago, who was recently ranked as the most incompetent mayor in Sub-Saharan Africa, has been fired from leading Dr. Kizza Besigye’s legal team and replaced with Kenya’s former Minister for Justice, Martha Karua, in an ongoing case in the army court.
According to a source privy to the matter, on November 22, 2024, Besigye instructed his wife, Winnie Byanyima, when she went to visit him in Luzira, to find a competent lawyer for him after Lukwago failed to secure bail for the former FDC leader.
Accordingly, Byanyima hired Karua and over 50 lawyers from Uganda and Kenya to represent the four-time presidential contender and his political associate Haji Obeid Lutale in the case before the General Court Martial in Makindye, Kampala, giving Lukwago a vote of no confidence and leaving him on the bench to watch and learn from the experts.
“Besigye didn’t want to embarrass his longtime friend (Lukwago), so he left him on the team but put Karua in the leading role,” the source privy to the matter stated.
Eventually, on Monday, November 25, 2024, Lukwago announced that the head of the team of lawyers who will be representing Besigye is Martha Karua.
“From today onwards, she’s the head of the legal team. I am no longer the lead counsel in this matter,” Lukwago said.
On November 20, 2024, Besigye together with Haji Lutale were produced before the military court in Kampala and charged with four counts relating to security, illegal possession of two pistols, and illegal possession of eight rounds of ammunition. They were remanded to Luzira prison until December 2, 2024.
