Uganda Law Society is an association of lawyers charged with ensuring high levels of professionalism among lawyers in Uganda. The association has seemingly failed in its core mandate to regulate the behavior of its members and keep them in line, which should be it’s primary objective.
Over the weekend, the association through its chairman Mr. Simon Peter M. Kinobe, released a press statement castigating the apparent (not yet proved by authorities) abduction of one of its alleged members, a one Patrick Mugisha Machiika by unknown assailants who they ‘believe’ belong to security agencies.
For a well funded and educated group of individuals to come out with such an ill prepared statement and making unverified allegations against bonafide institutions mandated by the constitution to maintain law and order is an embarrassment. It is only last week that the society sent a team of low ranking officials including interns to face the Parliamentary Legal Affairs committee on issues of accountability, in what the Parliamentarians conceived as contempt and disrespect before proceeding to send them away.
There exists a number of avenues through which citizens can investigate whereabouts of missing individuals which is through Police, that is mandated with that responsibility.
The law society should also know better the role and responsibilities of individual security organizations. The society should be in position to understand and respect the mandate of these institutions and concentrate on the tasks at hand rather than attack individuals in a seemingly politically motivated witch-hunt.
The actions of the Society’s President, Mr Kinobe against certain security organizations especially ISO and CMI is also questionable, he has consistently without due course made accusations against their leadership in a number of cases many of which he has not followed up subsequently even when perpetrators have been aligned and proved to be guilty under the circumstances. He appears to hold a grudge against the individuals in these organizations, contravening the principle of natural justice and clearly constituting a conflict of interest in the matter.
According to the statement by the association, it claims to have received reports of torture of individuals in what they termed as ‘areas not gazetted for holding’. This is a sign of laziness and dereliction of duty on behalf of the society that is not only well manned but also equally funded by the government of Uganda and even foreign donors whose interest is yet to be fully established. They have all the time and resources to investigate and establish the existence of these ‘facilities’ and also use the legal channels that they know so well to see them shut down if they truly exist.
The society is also not the custodian of the law in Uganda and as such, they too ought to follow the law in pursuit of justice. By calling upon all lawyers in Uganda to prosecute an individual because they posses a particular office, does not only tantamount to Mob justice but also an utter disregard of the laws of the land in what is a clear miscarriage of justice by those who ought to guide the nation in responsible legal procedure.
The law society should declare their interest in the matter beyond pursuit of justice for a fellow member, seeing that the alleged missing person’s family has taken due course to establish his whereabouts. The threats of the society to ‘escalate’ the issue is regrettable and attempts at politicizing the matter should be stopped.
