Writer: Gawaya Tegulle. PHOTO/FILE
May it please my Lord the Chief Justice! From your humble officer of the court, warm compliments and a toast to your continued good health! I seek to move you, my Lord, on a matter of utmost national importance and respectfully crave your indulgence therein.Since this column is a permanent record on a public forum, I will, with leave from you, my Lord, skip undue legalese and technicalities, to make it more democratic.
I recall with fondness, my last appearance before you – a few months ago in the Supreme Court – when senior counsel Isaac Ssemakadde and I sought further justice for the taxpayer in that very interesting appeal and cross-appeal touching the plunder of just under Shs200 billion, by thieves hiding in plain sight.
My Lord, in the course of those very dramatic proceedings, you revealed that in 18 months, you’d be calling time on your tour of duty. As a writer, my instinct in such circumstances is always to ask, ‘has he written an autobiography yet, or commissioned someone to do a biography?’You and the General Court Martial were on my mind when I woke up this morning. I was passing judgment over a bowl of oats before me at breakfast, but justice was being dispensed very slowly, because I was in deep thought.Proceedings were only interrupted when a big, black bear wandered onto the porch and peered in, his nose brushing the glass door. He looked at me, then at the breakfast table, then looked at me again. I understood him clearly. So, I opened a window and tossed him two apples. He munched on them gratefully, then lumbered away. I watched him, until he disappeared into the woods of this game park.
My eyes turned to the footprints he had left in the snow, which clearly proclaimed that he’d paid my cottage a visit. That’s when it struck me. I was like, wait a moment, strictly speaking, it really doesn’t matter whether or not we formally write and publish our biographies.
Each of us, in the ordinary course of thinking, speaking and taking action – or refusing to take action - is actually writing our biography, every single day.Society is deceptive; throughout the ages, people have often appeared unconcerned, undiscerning and completely distracted. But hindsight now assures us that they note our every word and our every action and omission - and tell our tales for ages. And now with the advent of digital media, truth is that each of us has an autobiography, with many chapters and pages, except that they are scattered, in the hands, handsets, laptops and cloud accounts of millions of people we don’t even know.
My Lord, weren’t you too, horrified by the humiliation of the young people of National Unity Platform (NUP) who languished for years in prison, denied justice by the General Court Martial? And that to earn their freedom, they had to confess to crimes everyone knows they didn’t commit? Aren’t you bothered that Opposition leader Kizza Besigye is, again, back in prison, via the same court? Three or so years ago, the Constitutional Court outlawed the trial of civilians in military courts; a great win for human rights, because we all know the injustices that civilians – talk less of soldiers – suffer in military courts.
When the Attorney General appealed and filed an application to allow continuance of trying civilians in military courts pending disposal of the appeal, my Lord, the Supreme Court made two mistakes. One, it allowed the application, in essence saying the human rights violations could continue until disposal of the appeal. Two, the Supreme Court has since sat on the appeal, allowing for the abuse to continue unmitigated.
There is really nothing much to debate in this matter; what the Supreme Court has done – and refused or delayed to do – is wrong. And it is unjust.Like my big, black bear friend, we all leave footprints in the snow, in the sand, in the soil; telling the story of where we came from, where we passed and where we went. You, my Lord, have written your biography up to this point. The millions of readers, with different pages in their hands, are the ones who know how it reads so far; but you still have time to edit it. Edit it well.
The writer, Gawaya Tegulle, is an advocate of the High Court of Uganda
