Developments in Uganda

It has been far too long since I provided an update regarding what is happening on the ground in what has become my second home.  While I am currently residing in London with my family for the fall semester (serving as the Director of Pepperdine Law’s Fall Program), I am eagerly awaiting my next trip to Uganda six weeks from now.

Much has happened since I last took the time to prepare a blog entry.  Those of you who recall my friend and surrogate son, Henry, will be pleased to hear he is doing quite well.  When he and I first met in January of 2010, he was languishing in a juvenile prison waiting for a trial after nearly two years.  Late last month, Henry moved to Ishaka, Uganda and started medical school at Kampala International University.

Henry’s Home at Medical School

The Next Chapter Begins

He is living in a rented house with four other students and is thrilled beyond measure to be on the path toward his chosen career.  In a recent e-mail, he remarked, “What a joy I have!”  Thanks again to Colin and Amy Batchelor and John and Rosella Gash for teaming up to cover Henry’s tuition.  Over the next few weeks, I will be posting about his weekly schedule.

In other news pertaining to Henry and his family, the surveyors we hired to assist them in securing title to their family’s land (and protecting themselves against attempted land grabbing by relatives) have completed their work and have completed the paperwork.  We are now waiting to receive the official land title back from the government so they will be secure against illegal seizure by the relatives of Henry’s deceased father.

While the cost of securing the land title was substantial (more than $2,000), it will allow the family to subdivide and sell or rent small plots of the land to interested neighbors who would like to use the land to live and farm.  This will hopefully provide the family with sustainable resources to cover what was lost with the passing of Henry’s father.

In other national news, Uganda continues to be interesting and unpredictable.  Over the weekend, the Uganda police infiltrated and arrested members of a Somali terrorist cell with ties to Al Shabaab, which has wreaked havoc in Kenya recently with multiple massively deadly attacks.  A few weeks ago, the United States military killed the leader of Al Shabaab with the assistance of intelligence provided by Uganda.  According to the US Embassy in Uganda, the arrest averted an imminent terrorist attack.  Some of you may recall the coordinated bombings in 2010 in Uganda killing seventy-four during the final of the World Cup – this was carried out by Al Shabaab.

So far, Uganda has avoided joining the growing number of African countries recently infected by the recent Ebola outbreak.  Uganda, has, however, suffered numerous Ebola outbreaks in the not-too-distant past, though they have so far been kept away from the capital city of Kampala.

While Henry and I are still waiting for the ruling from the Ugandan Court of Appeals in the case I argued in March of 2013, the Court of Appeals has been busy with other important rulings.

In early August, the court ruled unconstitutional President Museveni’s reappointment of Benjamin Odoki as Chief Justice.  Odoki had served admirably as Chief Justice for over a decade, but reached the age of mandatory retirement (70) in March of 2013.  Uganda’s constitution allows for the temporary appointment of retired justices to fill vacancies, and the President had used this appointment power to put Odoki back on the Supreme Court.  And after Odoki was back on the Supreme Court, the President decided he could reappoint him as Chief Justice from his position on the Court.  But the Court of Appeals (Uganda’s constitutional court of first impression) invalidated the appointment, declaring Odoki to be ineligible for the Chief Justice provision.  It is not yet clear whether the Attorney General will lodge an appeal with the Supreme Court – the court on which Odoki still sits.  In the meanwhile, the Ugandan Judiciary still lacks a substantive head of the Judiciary.  Court of Appeals Justice Steven Kavuma is currently serving as Acting Chief Justice until this gets resolved and is managing well under the difficult circumstances.

But the Court of Appeals wasn’t content to make headlines only once that week.  Just a couple days earlier, the same court also declared Uganda’s much-maligned “Anti-Homosexuality Bill” unconstitutional.  This ruling gained world-wide recognition, making headlines in the United States, Great Britain, and elsewhere.  The Bill was not, however, struck down on its merits as the challengers hoped, but was instead invalidated on the grounds that Parliament lacked the necessary quorum to pass the law in the first place.  The court did not reach the merits of whether the Bill would otherwise have been in violation of Uganda’s constitution as a deprivation of privacy rights or whether the Bill runs contrary to numerous treaties and obligations to which Uganda has become a signatory.  This prudential approach of not reaching the merits of a constitutional challenge when the case can be resolved on procedural grounds is well established in the United States as well and is known as the “Ashwander Rule,” taking its name from a United States Supreme Court case in which the principle was announced.

As would be expected in a country that supported the law in overwhelming numbers, several members of Parliament are agitating to bring the Bill back to the floor to pass it again with the requisite number of MPs in attendance.  Stung by the avalanche of international criticism and painful sanctions endured in the wake of his signing the Bill the first time around, President Museveni seems to be less than encouraging of this idea.  Truth be told, he was not a strong supporter of the legislation in the first place, and only reluctantly acceded to Parliament in the wake of the looming national election a little over a year from now.  My prediction (and I have been wrong before) is that the issue will quietly be put on the back burner until after the early 2016 election and won’t thereafter be passed again.

With respect to the plea bargaining front, Uganda continues to make progress toward full implementation at all prisons.  While things never move as fast as hoped, change is hard and we are excited about the steps that are being taken.  My attempts to remain in the background were foiled a bit in a recent article reporting on the progress.

Finally, with respect to the documentary that was filmed in July, those on the Revolution Pictures team are quite excited about what they captured and are now editing into a film.  A couple weeks ago, we were sent a two-minute “teaser” to give us a sense of where things were headed.  Everyone on the Pepperdine side was pleased.  The editing process will be completed by the end of the year.  At that point, decisions about how and where it will be distributed will be made.

Thanks for following along.