The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
KAMPALA, UGANDA | THE INDEPENDENT | The Buganda Road Chief Magistrates Court has issued an order directing the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) to arrest Uganda Law Society President Isaac Ssemakadde from whichever country he is hiding and bring him back home to face trial on charges of insulting the modesty of a woman, particularly the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Jane Frances Abodo.
Buganda Road Chief Magistrate Ronald Kayizzi issued the orders on Wednesday during the hearing of the case. He asked private prosecutors Tony Tumukunde and Joshua Byamazima to inform the court whether Ssemakadde has been arrested by the Uganda Police Force, as ordered last month. However, the private prosecutors told the court that Ssemakadde is still on the run and has not yet been arrested. The lawyers noted that when the court issued a warrant of arrest against Ssemakadde last month, they served him through his lawyers at GEM Advocates.
The court has heard that the prosecutors even served the Inspector General of Police, but Ssemakadde never respected them and he never stepped in court. As a result, they applied for an international warrant of arrest to be effected by Interpol from whichever country he was in.
Kayizzi agreed with them and ordered Interpol to arrest Ssemakadde and bring him before the Kampala-based court on April 16, 2025, to answer charges without fail. Ssemakadde was first issued a warrant of arrest on February 24, 2025, when he failed to show up in court for the third time after being issued with criminal summons.
His lawyers led by Derrick Bazekuketta told the Chief Magistrate that their client Ssemakadde was always present in court through them, a submission that court rejected saying it was not applicable in criminal matters where criminal liability is individually affected. The charges for which Ssemakadde has been issued a warrant of arrest today were levied against him by his subjects, lawyers Joshua Byamazima and Tony Tumukunde.
On November 22, 2024, Byamazima and Tumukunde filed a complaint on oath and an affidavit in support thereof seeking summons against Ssemakadde to appear and plead to the proposed charge of insulting the modesty of a woman contrary to Section 115(3) of the Penal Code Act.
The two private prosecutors allege that on November 18, 2024, while addressing the members of the People’s Freedom Front (PFF) party at a “symposium on the state of the Rule of Law, Constitutionalism and Human Rights: The Kisumu 36 Tales” held at Katonga Road in Kampala Central, Kampala District, Ssemakadde uttered obscene and indecent words against the DPP Lady Justice Jane Frances Abodo.
“All these things like your particular kerfuffle are then given legal dressing by this vagina from Karamoja,” reads the words in contention reportedly said by Ssemakadde. That Ssemakadde added, “I have made a case before that we have a pumpkin for a DPP, but some lawyers continue to pretend that she is actually the DPP… she is deadwood.”
They submitted to court a flash disk containing the video of the alleged utterances. Ssemakadde was summoned twice but he defied the summons and opted to challenge the proceedings in the High Court, which has delayed to handle his case. Accordingly, Tumukunde and Byamazima asked for a warrant of arrest against him, which has been granted today. On Tuesday (yesterday), Ssemakadde, through his lawyers, wrote a complaint to the Registrar of the High Court Criminal Division where he challenged the process to summon him at Buganda Road Court, which later resulted in the warrants of arrest. But he complains that the Buganda Road Court has declined to stay proceedings despite the matters being challenged in a higher court.
As directed, the parties duly filed their respective written submissions. “We note that the lower court declined to stay the impugned proceedings pending revision. This denial has severely jeopardized our client’s liberty and right to a fair hearing,” GEM Advocates wrote.
He asked for an interim order staying the proceedings. “We humbly pray that this Honourable Court prioritizes this matter and be pleased to issue a ruling notice with an interim order of stay of proceedings in the lower court,” Ssemakadde’s lawyers wrote.
This is the second warrant of arrest to be issued against Ssemakadde by the courts of law in less than two weeks. The first one was issued by the then-Civil Division Judge Musa Ssekaana, now a Constitutional Court/Court of Appeal Designate Judge, on February 14, 2025, after finding Ssemakadde in contempt of court. Ssemakadde was convicted following his statements on social media X handle, formerly Twitter, in which he criticized the judge following his decision (Ssekaana’s) to block the Extraordinary Annual General Meeting for Uganda Law Society (ULS), in which they were to elect new representatives to the Judicial Service Commission.
Ssekaana, who had personal issues with Ssemakadde dating way back in 2022 when the lawyer had abused him in a language crafted in vulgarity, seized the opportunity arising from lawyer Mugisha Hashim Mugisha to hand a jail term of two years to Ssemakadde. Ssekaana has since been criticized by the majority of the population for being a judge, a complainant in a case against him, well knowing that he had other cases previously against Ssemakadde. .
*****
URN
