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Army court held us for 7 hours, ordered we pay Shs1,000 in coins

Mr Caleb Alaka, a lawyer

What you need to know:

  • Mr Alaka says his crimes, in the eyes of Tumwiine, was because the General misunderstood what it meant for a lawyer to robe in their professional attire. 

For senior lawyer Caleb Alaka, his pains with the military court started when he showed up as one of defence lawyers for Dr Kizza Besigye in 2005. 

Mr Alaka and colleagues were representing Dr Besigye, then president of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party. Dr Besigye, alongside 22 others, was charged with treason and associating with the so-called People's Redemption Army (PRA), a shadowy rebel outfit. 

Dr Besigye then faced grave charges whose maximum punishment was death by hanging.

The Makindye-based General Court Martial was chaired by then Bush War Gen Elly Tumwiine (now deceased), its first chairman. 

Mr Alaka says he soon ran into trouble and was sentenced to jail for attempting to defend his co-counsel, Mr Erias Lukwago, now Kampala Lord Mayor, who had been held in contempt of the court. 

“When they took Besigye to the General Court Martial, I was counsel for FDC stalwart Sam Njuba while Mr Erias Lukwago and others were lawyers for Dr Besigye. So, the same objections about the court being incompetent were being raised,” Mr Alaka says. 

He adds: “Mr Lukwago raised an objection about the court not being the type of court before which civilians should appear. But Gen Tumwine ordered Mr Lukwago to sit down. Mr Lukwago begged to continue talking.”

“But Gen Tumwine ordered the arrest of Lukwago by the military police as Mr Lukwago resisted. I knew there was a problem, so I intervened by pleading for Lukwago,” he adds. 

Counsel Alaka’s objections were overruled. 

“Immediately they said Lukwago was in contempt of the court and should be put in the dock. I objected. I was also quickly ordered to the dock,” he says. 

Luckily, Mr Alaka says, they were only held for seven hours before they were arraigned and charged with contempt of court and sentenced to pay a fine of Shs1,000 in coins. 

Mr Alaka says his crimes, in the eyes of Tumwiine, was because the General misunderstood what it meant for a lawyer to robe in their professional attire. 

He says Gen Tumwiine mistook the expression to mean robbery and thought he had been referred to as a robber, which annoyed him. 

“Because I was from the High Court, I was robed in a lawyer’s regalia, complete with a professional shirt, a gown, and flaps. The professional clothing of lawyers. So I told him, ‘you cannot take me to the dock because I am robed’,” he recalls. 

“He said he had tried so many robbers and did not care whether I was robbed because he had tried so many robbers, ‘just enter inside [the dock]’. So it was a very, very interesting scenario since the robing I was talking about was my professional attire,” Mr Alaka recalls as he chuckles. 

He also recounts the awful memories of spending seven hours in a smelly detention centre of the court. 

“It was a very terrifying experience because we were caged like animals in that dock of the court martial. And thereafter, we were taken to a holding cell. That’s where we spent the seven hours,” he remembers. 

“So, that’s my experience before the General Court Martial. It has never been a court, it can lock up anybody, a lawyer who is representing people, however good-mannered; a civilian; a soldier; a data clerk; and anybody,” he warns.