Justice Kisaakye draws early curtain on career
Justice Esther Kitimbo Kisaakye. Photo | File
What you need to know:
- The Supreme Court judge, previously embroiled in public spat with Chief Justice Owiny-Dollo, is calling it quits seven years before her official retirement age.
A Supreme Court judge, who put the Judiciary to test by suing its top brass, has formally requested to retire early from the bench.
Justice Esther Kitimbo Kisaakye communicated her decision to quit Uganda’s highest appellate court to President Museveni, the appointing authority, in a July 18 letter.
The letter is copied to Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo, the chairperson of the Judicial Service Commission and the Judiciary Permanent Secretary/Secretary --- three principals she took to the Constitutional Court.
She challenged the constitutionality of a litany of administrative actions by the respondents against her, among them, being investigated on allegations without disclosure of offence particulars or identity of the complainant(s), freeze of pay and her removal as head of administration at the Supreme Court.
Judiciary suspended perks to Justice Kisaakye over allegations that she had absconded in what she counter-argued was an absence from work occasioned by health reasons that her supervisor, the Chief Justice, was allegedly aware of.
Justice Kisaakye told court her rights to work and related entitlements were being violated and sanctions against her by the Chief Justice, the Judiciary Permanent Secretary and the Judicial Service Commission were unconstitutional.
She asked the Constitutional Court to grant her 24 orders along with numerous declarations. She, among other things, sought the annulment of the record that she absconded from duty.
Clash with Chief Justice
Justice Kisaakye averred that her employer had subverted the rules of natural justice by depriving her of the right to a fair hearing, a claim that at the time separately attracted the attention of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).
ICJ asked Uganda’s Judicial Service Commission to ensure that Justice Kisaakye’s procedural rights were fully respected, including “her right to receive her salary and other benefits”.
These rights were among those the judge prayed to be restored by the Constitutional Court and that she must be duly notified of any disciplinary proceedings pending against her.
The respondents, among them the Chief Justice, denied any wrongdoing or that any of their actions were unconstitutional.
Despite filing her case against the top brass of the Judiciary at the Constitutional Court in October 2022, some 11 months ago, there is no evidence that the Judiciary constituted a Coram of judges to hear the matter.
A fallout between Chief Justice Owiny-Dollo and Justice Kisaakye played out in public in 2021 when the latter, during Supreme Court’s determination of a presidential election petition filed by Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, said the former had confiscated her file of a dissenting ruling.
In the course of the hearing, before withdrawing his petition altogether on grounds that the court was not impartial, the opposition politician had midway sought to introduce additional evidence to buttress his case, an application which the justices disallowed by a majority decision.
It is Justice Kisaakye who held a dissenting view and she told journalists at the time at Supreme Court that a file in her office containing the decision was confiscated by court staff on the orders of the Chief Justice ahead of her reading of the ruling. Chief Justice Owiny-Dollo denied the claim.
Justice Esther Kitimbo Kisaakye. Photo | Rachel Mabala
The Judiciary said she subsequently became a no-show at work without express permission from the Chief Justice, although Justice Kisaakye in her defence noted that she took a sick leave and travelled abroad for treatment before returning to the country to find herself without official assignments.
Payment of her salary was suspended, the Judicial Service Commission placed her under investigations and other official perks were frozen, prompting Justice Kisaakye, who has been the most senior judge on the bench, to challenge the actions.
In the intervening period, a high-profile team of lawyers, among them Judicial Service Commission’s Benjamin Kabiito and Peter Walubiri, turbo-charged diplomatic efforts to resolve the differences and reconcile the two judicial honchos. It was unclear if the team scored some wins.
However, in February this year, the Judicial Service Commission recommended to President Museveni, the appointing authority, to remove Justice Kisaakye as a Supreme Court judge.
Weeks later, the Commission cleared Chief Justice Owiny-Dollo of any wrongdoing following its inquiries into the debacle over Bobi Wine’s petition.
At 63 years, Justice Kisaakye is seven years away from the official retirement age for judges of the Supreme Court, which is 70. It is unclear why she wants out early.
Article 144(1) of the Constitution of Uganda permits a judicial officer to retire at any time after clocking 60, Justice Kisaakye noted in her letter to the President.
“I am now aged 63 years [old]. In accordance with the said Article, I hereby tender in my early retirement from the Supreme Court,” she wrote, and thanked the President and the people of Uganda “for having given me the opportunity to serve my country as a Justice of the Supreme Court”.
The judge was unavailable to discuss the matter, and a source close to her told this newspaper that the President was yet to respond to her application for early retirement.
Her career
Educated at Makerere University in Kampala and Georgetown University in the United States, Justice Kisaakye obtained a doctorate degree in law from the Washington College of Law of the American University in Washington DC, in 2009.
After practising as a legal assistance and an advocate between 1983 and 2009, she moved to banking and insurance sectors before joining government service as a private legal secretary to Uganda’s first female Vice President, Dr Specioza Wandira Kazibwe.
The scholar-cum-jurist then rolled into the world of academic, taking up a teaching job at Makerere University Law School.
President Museveni in 2009 tapped Kisaakye as a justice of Uganda’s highest appellate court.
When contacted, Senior Presidential Press Secretary Sandor Walusimbi said: “If she wrote to the President I am sure she will let you know when the President has given a response. If the President receives a letter and it necessitates a public response, you guys will know but if he responds privately, then it is addressed to that person and if they wish to, they will tell you.”
Retirement benefits
Once her retirement is cleared, Justice Kisaakye will continue to receive a monthly retirement benefit equivalent to 80 percent of the salary payable to her serving counterparts for the rest of her life. She is also entitled to a one-off lumpsum retirement benefit equivalent to 2.4 percent of her annual salary multiplied by five and the years of service among other benefits. The benefits laid out in the Administration of the Judiciary Act (AJA), 2020 are exempt from tax.
Justice Kisakye’s wish to decamp from the Supreme Court, if accepted, will leave the highest court in the land with nine out of recommended 11 justices, including the Chief Justice, following the deaths of Justices Ruby Opio Aweri and in June, this year, of Stella Arach-Amoko. Besides the Chief Justice Owiny-Dollo, the other Supreme Court justices are Faith Mwondha, Prof Lillian Tibatemwa, Percy Tuhaise, Mike Chibita, Christopher Madrama, Elizabeth Musoke and Stephen Musota.
