At Long Last

I assume I’m not the only one who seemingly spends an inordinate amount of time waiting for some anticipated event to occur, results to come in, or project to be completed.  For those of us with close ties to Uganda, the wait often seems to be especially lengthy.  During my five-year love affair with this beautiful country and its beautiful people, God has taught me patience in countless ways, though the learning process isn’t nearly complete.

For several months in 2010, I waited for Henry to be released from juvenile prison.  And then for nearly three years, I waited for a hearing date in the court of appeals so I could argue why Henry’s conviction should be overturned.  On March 12, 2013, the day finally arrived for the argument.  As I discussed here, things went according to plan.

In 2014, my local counsel in Uganda filed two separate reminders with the court to encourage them to issue their ruling.  These were met with utter silence.  Then, earlier this week, on the exact date of the two-year anniversary of the hearing, I received . . . absolutely nothing.  Still no ruling and no indication of when it might be issued.

But, something else happened.  Something that is quite a bit more important for Uganda than the ruling in Henry’s case (which, as discussed below, will have no practical impact on Henry’s life).  Two years ago next week, the Chief Justice of the Uganda Supreme Court (Benjamin Odoki) reached the mandatory retirement age under Uganda’s constitution.  Eight months earlier, the same thing had happened to the Deputy Chief Justice (head of the court of appeals).  Rather than accepting the nomination of the body tasked with recommending to the President who Odoki’s successor should be, President Museveni, on the advice of his Attorney General, declined to appoint the Judicial Services Commission’s recommendation of Associate Supreme Court Justice Bart Katureebe as Chief Justice.  Instead, President Museveni gave retired Chief Justice Odoki a two-year contract to serve on the Supreme Court, which is permitted when there are vacancies, and then re-appointed Odoki as Chief Justice, arguing that the constitutional age limit didn’t apply since he was permissibly on the court on a contract basis.

Unsurprisingly, this provoked (i) howls from the Uganda Law Society (they actually disbarred the Attorney General in the wake of this action), and (ii) a lawsuit seeking to block the re-appointment.  Over a year later, the court of appeals ruled the re-appointment unconstitutional, sending us all back to square one.  In the interim, Justice Steven Kavuma – senior member of the court of appeals, who was also on the three-judge panel in Henry’s case – was named Acting Chief Justice and Acting Deputy Chief Justice.  But since he was only “acting,” rather than “substantive” head of the courts, he was not empowered to perform many of the duties of the Chief Justice.  So we have been in a two-year holding pattern.

At long last, however, President Museveni broke his silence last week and appointed Bart Katureebe to serve as Chief Justice – the same person nominated by the Judicial Services Commission two years ago.  (Justice Kavuma was also appointed to be Deputy Chief Justice).  These nominations still need to be approved by Parliament, but that is expected to happen soon.

In other updates on the Uganda front, Henry has completed his first semester of medical school.  In Uganda, as in the rest of the Commonwealth, medicine (like law) in an undergraduate major.  It will take Henry six years to complete his studies and become a doctor.  He first semester grades will be released next week.  Prayers are appreciated.

On the criminal justice reform front, things are progressing quite well under the leadership of several key Ugandan court and prosecutorial figures.  I am heading back to Uganda on April 15^th for ten days for a series of meetings and events, and will also likely be back there in the middle of May when our students begin their summer internships.  Later in May, I will be hosting a group of Ugandan court and prison officials in both Louisiana and Malibu – more on that soon.  Then in June and July, I will be out there for our annual prison project and for what has been tentatively planned as a national plea bargaining conference.  (My youngest two kids – Joshua and Jennifer – will also be in Uganda this summer with a group from Oaks Christian High School, where they are a Junior and Freshman, respectively).

We are in a temporary pause on the completion of the documentary filmed this past summer as we search for funding to do some final filming.  We are thrilled with the rough cut and are eager to share it more broadly.  (I had a chance to show some clips of the film earlier this week during a talk I gave at Biola University at their annual Missions Conference).

I intend to provide updates much more regularly in the coming weeks and months.