Supreme Court Judge Esther Kisaakye after storming out of the meeting at Serena Hotel in Kigo on February 8, 2023. PHOTO | STEPHEN OTAGE
Runaway Supreme Court Judge Esther Kisaakye has, for the first time, come out to explain why she had to flee the country.
Through her lawyers -- KBW Advocates -- the senior judge of the highest court in the land, says she had received credible reports that her life was in danger.
“Fearing for her safety after credible reports of threats to her life, Justice Kisaakye fled Uganda and continues to live outside the country until it is safe for her to return,” a statement responding to various issues surrounding her troubles released by her lawyers yesterday, reads.
The statement did not say who exactly was after the judge’s life, nor what means they wanted to use to kill her.
It emerged about a fortnight ago that Justice Kisaakye had fled the country, citing threats to her life.
The statement on the background and update about Justice Dr Kisaakye’s situation as of December 4, does not cite the exact date when the judge fled the country nor the country she fled to.
The judge lists several grounds for fleeing, including three petitions she filed in court that were never resolved.
The petitions touch on the refusal to ler her retire, her appeal against setting up a tribunal to handle her case and the failure of the Uganda Law Society to issue a report about her March 18, 2021 showdown at the Supreme Court.
Efforts to reach out to Security minister Maj Gen Jim Muhwezi on whether the agencies under him were aware of the alleged threats were fruitless as our calls to him went unanswered by press time.
Equally, police spokesperson Rusoke Kituuma was unreachable last evening.
Justice Kisaakye's woes date back to 2021 when she disagreed with eight justices over decisions related to the presidential election petition filed by former candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, challenging the election of President Museveni for a sixth term.
The alleged verbal outburst by Justice Kisaakye against the Chief Justice started on March 18, 2021, after the Supreme Court was thrown into pandemonium, with Justice Kisaakye claiming her file containing a dissenting ruling on the Bobi Wine versus Museveni presidential petition had been unfairly confiscated on the orders of the Chief Justice.
The Chief Justice has since denied the allegations.
Last year, the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) recommended that Mr Museveni removes Justice Kisaakye as a Supreme Court judge, and that she should be investigated over her alleged misconduct and verbal attack on the Chief Justice.
This was after the JSC, in its investigations against Justice Kisaakye’s alleged misconduct, established that there exists “some degree of evidence” (prima facie case) that warranted her being investigated by a tribunal formed by the President.
Last week, the Daily Monitor exclusively reported how Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan had appointed a top judge in her country to set up a tribunal that would probe allegations of misconduct against Justice Kisaakye.
It is upon this backdrop that in October, President Suluhu, acting on the request of her Ugandan counterpart, President Museveni, picked the said judge.
Statement one: Justice Kisaakye’s situation as of December 4, 2024
Statement two: Justice Kisaakye's lawyers clarification
Sources said Mr Museveni sought an independent judge from outside the country to hear the allegations of misconduct against Justice Kisaakye without any bias.
But in her response to the appointment of the Tanzanian judge to set up a tribunal, Justice Kisaakye said she was not aware of the development.
She also wondered why they would waste taxpayers’ money to probe a judge who has since retired, before branding the move as a continued testament to witch hunt her.
“Neither Justice Kisaakye nor her lawyers have received any notification from the relevant authority informing us about the appointment of such a tribunal. If the media reports of the appointment of a tribunal prove true, it will be a further testament of not only Justice Kisaakye’s continued persecution but also a reflection of a troubling erosion of judicial independence, good governance, and constitutionalism in Uganda,” the lawyers’ statement reads.
“It will also expose the government’s willingness to spend taxpayers’ resources on witch-hunting and persecuting an independent and non-corrupt judge, who has already taken early retirement while turning a blind eye to reports of rampant corruption and abuse of office within and outside the Judiciary of Uganda,” the statement adds.
Despite her claims to have since retired from active judicial service, President Museveni, in his capacity as the appointing authority, in October last year, rejected Justice Kisaakye’s request for early retirement, reasoning that she was still a subject of an investigation.
The reason Justice Kisaakye advanced for early retirement was that the Constitution gave her the green light to do so after she clocked 60 years of age.
“I have received your letter of the 18th of July, 2023, tendering your early retirement. As per the law, I cannot obstruct your wishes. However, that will preempt the work of the Judicial Commission of Enquiry or the tribunal,” President Museveni replied to Justice Kisaakye in his October 2, 2023 letter.
He added: “Apparently, you made some strong statements against the Chief Justice. Either those statements were right or were wrong. It is the tribunal that can conclude that. It is, thereafter, that the way forward will be clear for you.”
Being in judicial limbo
Justice Kisaakye, in her statement, also says she doesn’t know her current status in the Judiciary.
“From March 2021 to July 2023, Justice Kisaakye was denied judicial work. Since the President of Uganda deferred her early retirement in October 2023, Justice Kisaakye remains in judicial limbo --neither an active judge nor a retired one, depriving her of the ability to move on with her life,” Justice Kisaakye’s lawyers wrote in the December 4 statement.
“While Justice Kisaakye has and continues to be a victim of all the unconstitutional acts detailed out in the constitutional petitions currently pending before the Constitutional Court, the invisible victims of this unprecedented situation are the court users and the people of Uganda, who have been denied judicial services by the Supreme Court as a result of Justice Kisaakye not sitting and another judge not being appointed,” the statement asserts.
Efforts to reach out to the public relations officer of the Judiciary, Mr James Ereemye Mawanda, on why the Constitutional Court hasn’t heard Justice Kisaakye’s three petitions, were futile by press time.
However, in our previous inquiry over a similar question, Mr Ereemye called for patience on the part of the judge, reasoning that the court lists cases for hearing on the basis of “first in”, and “first out” and that at an appropriate time, her petitions would be heard.
Who is Justice Esther Kisaakye?
Justice Kisaakye was born on January 18, 1960, and is currently 63 years old.
She began her education at Kyanja Church of Uganda Nursery School, Kampala (1964), Wampewo Primary School (1965), Ntinda Primary School (1969-1970), Kibuli Demonstration Primary School (1971), Kololo Senior Secondary School (1972), East African Certificate of Education, Wanyange Girls School, Jinja, Uganda (1975), Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education at Trinity College Nabbingo, Kampala (Best Arts student of the year in the school -1977).
Full statement on www.monitor.co.ug
