Man petitions court to list lawyers as essential staff

A concerned advocate has petitioned the High Court in Kampala to compel the Health minister, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, toinclude lawyers on the list of essential workers who should be allowed to continue working during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Mr Geoffrey Turyamusiima filed the suit against Dr Aceng and the Attorney General on Tuesday evening.
He contends that the legal instrument No. 55 of 2020 issued out by Dr Aceng on March 31 unjustifiably left out the legal services by lawyers from the list of essential workers.

He cites Article 44 of the Constitution that allows a suspect to appear in court with his/her lawyer and the right to freedom from torture which, he says should not be waived no matter the prevailing circumstances.
“The instrument of the minister has made it impossible or very difficult for advocates to render legal services including defending and promoting the above non-derogable rights abused during the lockdown,” Mr Turyamusiima avers in his affidavit.
He further states: “During the Covid-19 lockdown, several Ugandans are being arrested, detained and sometimes presented before courts of law without advocates to represent them because we cannot drive to access our offices or courts.”

Mr Turyamusiima said his law firm Wameli & Co Advocates receives numerous phone calls daily from relatives of those arrested and need legal representation.
“I believe that the above and several other infringements, threats to the rights, are not acceptable or demonstrably justifiable in a free and democratic society that Uganda is supposed to be,” he said. Mr Turyamusiima also wants court to direct the Works minister to issue lawyers stickers.

Justice
Last week, Daily Monitor ran a story of how the ongoing lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19 was hampering access to justice.
Statistics obtained from prisons showed that the inmate population had sharply risen by 2,000 new entrants who had been remanded for mainly going against the directives of curfew and lockdown.
On April 16, the Kenyan High Court ordered government to quickly include lawyers on the list of “service, personnel or workers”, the equivalent of “essential workers” in Uganda.

The Kenya Law Society, which was the petitioner in the case argued that they needed to move around and offer legal representation to those Kenyans accused of breaking night curfew and lockdown directives on prevention of Covid-19.
Kenya had registered 296 Covid-19 cases by yesterday.
Judge W. Korir justified his decision to order for the inclusion of lawyers on the list of essential workers so that they can be extra vigilant when the State is exercising emergency powers and offer legal aid to those in need.

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