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.

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.

The kids and I just returned from a three day trip to Edinburgh, Scotland.  We found out that Edinburgh had not changed much since our previous visits in 2003 and 2008, but the kids had changed a lot.

We took the five hour train ride from London Kings Cross Station to Edinburgh.  If you are a Harry Potter fan, you may recognize Kings Cross Station as the location of Platform 9 ¾ where Harry and his classmates take the Hogwarts Express Train to Hogwarts Castle at the beginning of each new school year.  Platform 9 ¾ has changed over the years from a simple sign hanging on the wall between platforms 9 and 10 in 2003, to a wall with a trolley coming out of it in 2008, to an elaborate set up in 2014 with a trolley full of props and a camera man and assistant there to hand you a wand and dress you up in your favorite house scarf.  You used to be able to just walk up to the wall and take your own photo, but now you have to wait in a line behind a dozen or more people to get dressed up and have a professional photo taken which you can purchase at the Harry Potter shop in the station.  They do allow you to take your own photo for free if you stand off to the side, but you still have to wait in line to get to the wall.

We had fun visiting familiar places around Edinburgh and recreating some photos from the past at Greyfriars Bobby and Edinburgh Castle.

We also visited the Museum of Childhood which has a huge collection of toys and the Palace of Holyroodhouse where the Queen of England stays when she visits Scotland.

Once again we were visiting during the Edinburgh International Festival when professional and amateur performers from around the world come to share their talents.  The streets were packed with people watching street performers and people handing out flyers to invite you to watch their production of drama, music, dance, comedy, improv, etc.  We enjoyed attending an improv production called Upstairs Downton which was a hilarious spoof of the television show Downton Abbey created from audience suggestions.

We left Edinburgh feeling tired from all the walking we did, but happy that we had seen everything we wanted to see, and knowing that this time the kids will remember it.

While our family lives in London for the fall semester we hope to keep in touch with family and friends back home by sharing stories and photos of our adventures.  Our arrival was really a walk down memory lane as we saw familiar places.  We are back living in the Pepperdine House at 56 Prince’s Gate in South Kensington, which is a beautiful area near Hyde Park and several museums (Science, Natural History, and Victoria and Albert).

After spending a couple of days getting settled, we took a three day trip to Ireland.  Because Jim had learned how to drive on the left side of the road in Uganda, he was able to drive our family in Ireland around the Ring of Kerry.  Saying that it was beautiful, really doesn’t do it justice.  I think it is best expressed in photos.

Within a few hours of our return, Jim’s brother Jerry arrived for his first visit to London.  Our kids have enjoyed taking Uncle Jerry to their favorite museums, places to eat, and monuments.  It has been fun for us to see how our kids have grown up and know their way around the city.  They have done a great job planning the daily sightseeing schedule.  Here are some of the things we have seen.

We look forward to many more adventures with our family and with the Law students and Seaver College students this semester.

My last two days in Kampala (Sunday and Monday) were a blur as the teams wrapped up the case briefing for the 161 prisoners they assisted.  The Pepperdine students serving as interns in Uganda still had one week left in town, so they would be putting the final touches on the briefs before heading home.

Terrorism alerts issued by the United States Embassy in early May had focused on houses of worship.  Consequently, Pepperdine insisted that our students be instructed not to attend church while serving their internships.  The irony of a Christian university forbidding its students from attending church was lost on no one.  I hadn’t yet decided whether I would personally feel bound by this restriction, but it didn’t matter because the film crew had decided to delay interviewing me for the documentary until Sunday – their last day in Uganda.

So Sunday was my day in front of the camera.  More specifically, it was my day to the side of the camera.  Like they did with Henry, they filmed me at about a 45-degree angle.  I think they got my good side, though my kids insist that I don’t really have a good side.

Over the course of about three hours, we covered the entire landscape of Pepperdine’s relationship with the judiciary, my relationship with Henry, and the ongoing projects on which I am working.  It got emotional at times, but I held it together more than I expected.  At one point, the director wanted to go over a subject area again, so he apologetically asked me to wipe the tears off my cheeks “for continuity sake” – things I never would have thought about had I not seen a movie made up-close-and-personal.

Speaking of which, I learned some new terminology during the process.  For example, when they start rolling the cameras, they say “we are speeding.”  The hour or so around sunset is called “blue hour” or “magic hour” when the light is at its best.  And when they film each character looking off in the distance or looking at the camera, they call this “the hero shot” or “the vignette.”  Henry’s “hero shot” was him sitting in a chair by a window.

Chief Justice Odoki’s was standing in his full court regalia against a wall of windows overlooking Kampala.

For my “vignette,” they decided to go with me doing a cartwheel in the hotel’s sixth floor lobby.  My elementary-school gymnastics training is a gift that just keeps on giving . . .  Thankfully, I have no still photos of this – just have to wait for the movie.

Our Ugandan logistical coordinator, Andrew, and I accompanied the film crew to the airport on Sunday afternoon to ensure they got through customs without the major troubles they encountered on the way in.  Things were much easier on the way out, though their flight was cancelled, so it took a couple hours to get them sorted on a later flight on a different airline.  Nothing is easy in Uganda.

That evening, those who went on the safari returned with smiles, photos, and hunger.  So while the students went back to their apartments, the Goodmans, Detweilers, and I dined at my favorite restaurant in town – the Emin Pasha.  I’m not sure I have had a better steak anywhere in the world.

As I looked ahead at the tasks and meetings remaining before I headed home, I figured out I could get them all done on Monday, so I called Delta to see if I could move my flight up one day and surprise my family.  It turned out that there was room on the earlier flight and the change fee roughly equaled the cost of staying one more day in Kampala, so I booked the earlier flight.

Monday was blur of meetings.  Farewell to the Detweilers (staying a few more days in Jinja), breakfast meeting with a good Welsh friend who is doing important work ensuring inter-country adoption in Uganda complies with ethical standards, planning meeting with Andrew about the path forward for plea bargaining in Uganda, farewell to Goodmans who were flying out in the early afternoon via Dubai, meetings with High Court Justices in the Family Division (about expanding our Nootbaar Fellows Program this fall to have the first-ever mediator in the country for family cases), in the Anti-Corruption Division (about the impact of plea bargaining on that court), and in the Criminal Division (about upcoming juvenile and adult plea bargaining sessions).

I also had a chance to spend an hour with Justice K’s family and to renew my relationship with my God Son, Mark Kiryabwire.

And on my way to the airport, I stopped at a restaurant to meet Susan Vincent for a goodbye and a delivery of the gift I ordered two weeks earlier for Herb Nootbaar, the 105 year-old benefactor of the Nootbaar Institute under which Pepperdine’s Global Justice Program operates.

The three-leg flight home went according to plan, and my sister provided a huge assist in helping surprise my family as she drove me home from the airport.

I very much appreciate the prayers and encouragement along the way.  I will be providing periodic updates about how the cases we assisted with play out, and about how the documentary production schedule unfolds.

Additionally, please be praying for favor with Henry’s medical school applications.  He should begin hearing back as early as next week, but no later than the end of the month.  Also, the land registration process has begun in earnest as he tries to protect his family’s property from the attempted seizure by opportunistic relatives.