Totally Uncoup

Court holidays in Uganda come early and often throughout the year.  Sometimes they come unexpectedly.  Last Wednesday, the government declared this Wednesday to be a national holiday — NRM day.  NRM stands for the National Resistance Movement, which is the ruling political party of Uganda.  Imagine if President Obama declared next Wednesday to be National Democratic Party Day.

The timing of this holiday was strategic, as talk of a military coup has been dominating the headlines for the last week.  President Museveni, the head of the NRM party, is increasingly embattled this year – his 27^th in power.  As President, he is also head of the military and came to power himself in 1986 as a result of a military coup.  A few of the top generals have made some public comments, implying that another coup has been under discussion, though they have recently tried to walk back these comments, claiming they were hypothetical and only intended to increase pressure on Museveni’s government to crack down on a recent spate of corruption.  By calling a public holiday, Museveni curries favor with the working class (because they don’t have to work), and generates lots of media stories about the progress NRM has made for the country during the past 27 years in power.

The timing of the court holiday, however, put some extra pressure on my meeting schedule while I am here in town this week.

On Tuesday morning, I hired a driver to take me out to Henry’s school so I could pay his school fees for this first term, which started on Monday.  (A quick shout out to my parents, who are graciously footing the bill for Henry’s top-flight education).  I had a chance to spend a little time with one of Henry’s teachers while I was out there, and arranged to hire a few tutors for Henry so he can have the best chance possible of excelling in his last year of secondary education before starting university.

The next stop was a meeting with the registrar of the court of appeals.  I am trying to manage my expectations (because I have been disappointed before), but it now looks like the appeal I will be arguing will take place in mid-March in the capital city of Kampala.  I should know more next week.

Since I released my driver when he dropped me at the court of appeals, I took a boda from there over to the Commercial Court to meet up with David.  This time, I selected a driver without a helmet.  This equalized our survival incentives.  Unsurprisingly, this ride was much less harrowing than Monday’s.

David’s driver Daniel drove us to our scheduled lunch with a US Embassy official.  I had met this official when I lived in Kampala last June and wanted to both re-connect with him and to introduce him to David.  When I last met with this official, I had told him about J-FASTER and about the plans we had for it.  He was quite interested and wanted to be briefed on the successes since we last talked.  We also talked about the potential of partnering on future adult justice projects.  It was an excellent meeting, but nothing firm emerged.

From there, I went to the High Court and met with Chief Justice Odoki – the father of Uganda’s legal system.  He will be sorely missed when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70 in the next few months.  We then met with the judge who is handling the J-FASTER session scheduled to open next week.  This judge is the one I worked for most directly during my sabbatical stay in Kampala in 2012.  He was pleased to hear about the successful plea bargaining session on Monday.  We also discussed my idea for taking the next step in the expansion of plea bargaining to the adult realm.  No announcement yet, but it looks quite promising for a June launch.  (Joline, Jessica (my oldest), and I will be returning to Uganda for four weeks this summer).

David and I closed the evening with a great dinner with Justice K and his wife, and Justice Mike Chibita and his wife.  I had only briefly met Justice Chibita during my first trip to Uganda in January of 2010.  At the time, he was not on the bench, but was running Uganda’s version of the IRS and was also serving as President of the Uganda Christian Lawyers’ Fraternity.  He is now the Resident Judge for Fort Portal, which is located in southwestern Uganda, near where the Gorillas chill in the mist.  Justice Chibita has been a great friend and mentor to two of our prior Nootbaar Fellows – John Napier and Brett LoVellette.  It appears that our June project will allow me to work rather closely with Justice Chibita, and perhaps to get to know a few of the Silver Back gorillas in the region as well.

My date with Nyquil ended the evening on a rather pleasant note.

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The national holiday on Wednesday slowed down the pace of things considerably, except on the roads.  The nightmarish Ugandan traffic all but disappears on Sundays . . . and on holidays.  Everyone stays home or goes to church.  This allowed me free reign in the city.

Next weekend, Pepperdine Law’s Nootbaar Institute for Law, Religion, and Ethics is hosting an international conference on Inter-Country Adoption.  I had the idea for this conference after getting involved in a handful of these cases while I was here in Uganda in early 2012.  This conference will wrestle with the theological, ethical, political, and legal aspects of what some call “orphan care” and others call “child trafficking.”  Here is a link to this conference.  Speakers from all over the world will spend two full days discussing best practices and potential solutions to the world-wide orphan crisis.  Two such speakers (Mark Riley and Isaac Obiro) will be traveling from Uganda to participate in a case-study panel focusing on what is happening on the ground in Uganda.  The third panelist will be Sara Ribbens who, along with her husband Andy, adopted two Ugandan children in 2012.  I have become quite close with, and fond of, both Mark and Isaac, both of whom occupy different ends of the IA spectrum.  Mark is a Brit who works with the Ugandan government and UNICEF to develop and implement systems to resettle abandoned children with either their families or with other Ugandan foster parents.  For his part, Isaac is a lawyer who handles both domestic and Inter-country adoptions.

We met for an hour or so discussing next week’s panel, on which I will be serving as moderator.  I also had a chance to meet an American woman named Darby Priest.  Darby is a fellow ACU grad and a friend of my dear friends (the Istres).  She has been in Uganda for a few months working with Mark and Keren Riley is assisting them with the in-country resettlement of orphans.

David and I later had lunch with Edith Ssempala, former Ugandan Ambassador to the United States.  During my time here last year, I introduced Ambassador Ssempala to my friends at Sixty Feet, and she has since begun working with them in an advisory role.  It was good to connect her with David.  This woman’s faith permeates everything she says and does, and I always feel refreshed after spending time with her.

In the afternoon, David and I met with a lawyer who is working on a country-wide (and well-funded) project with UNICEF dealing with all aspects of caring for children.  She said she had been hearing about the J-FASTER program from lots of quarters and wanted to explore ways to partner with us.  The meeting was quite successful and will lead to several meetings with various groups who could assist in expanding the reach of our work.

I turned in early because Thursday promised to be a long day of driving and meetings on the eastern coast of Uganda.