Settle issues out of court, lawyers tell CJ, Kisaakye

Members of the Supreme Court prepare to hear a petition filed by former NUP presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi challenging President Museveni’s victory in the January 14 presidential polls last year. PHOTO / FILE 

What you need to know:

  • Mr Bernard Oundo, the ULS president, warned that should the petition filed by Justice Kisaakye against the Chief Justice and other Judiciary top officials go on for a full hearing, it will erode public confidence in the institution.

The Uganda Law Society (ULS) has urged Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo and his fellow Supreme Court Judge Esther Kisaakye to settle their grievances outside court to avoid the effects of full litigation and also preserve the sanctity of the institution.

Mr Bernard Oundo, the ULS president, warned that should the petition filed by Justice Kisaakye against the Chief Justice and other Judiciary top officials go on for a full hearing, it will erode public confidence in the institution.

“When you have such conflicts coming out in the open, they erode public confidence in the Judiciary and if we lose confidence in the Judiciary; where shall we go to?” Mr Oundo said during the release of the 3rd quarterly rule of law report in Kampala on Friday.

Law professor Fredrick Ssempebwa is leading a team of mediators, including former ULS president James Ssebugenyi,  to resolve the matter.

“Our advice and what I have tasked the chairman of the mediation committee, Prof Ssempebwa; is to continue with mediation that had been started some time back and see that this matter is hopefully mediated outside the court system. So as ULS, we are going to allow that process to continue,” Mr Oundo said.

Justice Kisaakye sued the Chief Justice and some top officers before the Constitutional Court.

She accused them of victimising her by withholding her salary, and denying her work, among others.

When this newspaper contacted Mr Francis Gimara, one of the lawyers representing the Chief Justice, on whether his client will embrace the option of having this petition settled outside the court system, he said a similar attempt had started some back without yielding any positive results.

“The committee has been there since the first conflict. May be you need to ask Prof Ssempebwa what happened,” Mr Gimara said yesterday.

Mr Peter Walubiri, the lawyer representing Justice Kisaakye, also held a similar view. “There was a similar committee and Prof Ssempebwa was part of it to try to resolve the issue. It failed. I am not aware that there is a new committee. If my client is contacted, she will respond,” Mr Walubiri said yesterday.

Efforts to reach Prof Ssempebwa were futile as he neither answered our repeated phone calls nor returned  them by press time.

However, sources close to the mediation developments told this newspaper that the Chief Justice had fully submitted himself to the mediation process.

“It’s now entirely on her (Justice Kisaakye) to have the mediation talks resume because the Chief Justice had fully been cooperating and before the matter went to court, he had met the Ssempebwa committee several times,” a source said.

There are no specific mediation rules for the Court of Appeal/ Constitutional Court where the Justice Kisaakye petition was filed but Article 126 of the Constitution allows promotion of mediation by courts.

Others sued along with Chief Justice are Mr Pius Bigirimana, the Judiciary Permanent Secretary, Ms Sarah Langa Siu, the chief registrar of the Judiciary, and the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and Ms Apophia Tumwine, the Commissioner, Human Resources of the Judiciary

The lawyers’ call comes at the time the Chief Justice and is co-defendants have filed in their defence, denying ally allegations labelled against him by Justice Kisaakye.

Court is yet to call the two parties and agree on the dates of pre-hearing.

background

The JSC is investigating Justice Kisaakye over her alleged abscondment from work for about nine months and also her alleged unethical conduct during the poll petition of National Unity Platform  leader Robert Kyagulanyi,  aka Bobi Wine.

It’s alleged that on March 18 last year, Justice Kisaakye refused to share her copy of dissenting ruling with her fellow judges, which is a practice of the Supreme Court.

It is also alleged that she stormed out of the boardroom ahead of the reading of the ruling.

The Judiciary statement that was released shortly after the ugly spat at the Kololo-based court, stated that Justice Kisaakye proceeded alone to the courtroom and read out her decision to a handful of lawyers and journalists and thereafter, attacked the CJ as she addressed the media.