No 2021 election job for Supreme Court?

Cadre judges claim

By dismissing the impartiality of the Supreme Court, Kyagulanyi is apparently airing a widely held view of the Supreme Court as a den of cadre judges. The view is partly because the justices must, under the law, be appointed by the president in consultation with the Judicial Service Commission and not less than ten justices.  Currently the Supreme Court has 10 justices. But to hear a presidential election petition requires only a Coram of seven justices.

Currently that would include Justice Alfonse Chigamoy Owiny-Dollo who is relatively new in the job, having been appointed Chief Justice of Uganda in August 2020.

65-year old Owiny- Dollo is, however, very experienced having served as deputy chief justice. He is also highly respected for his knowledge of the law and even-temperedness when presiding. But critics who label him a cadre judge point at how he served in the 1990s as Minister of State in Charge of Northern Uganda Reconstruction Programme (NURP) in President Museveni’s government.

In 2006, two years before he was appointed as a judge, Owiny-Dollo was reportedly a member of President Museveni’s defence team when his election was challenged by Dr Kizza Besigye in the Supreme Court.

Other justices of the Supreme court are Lady Justice Dr. Esther Kisaakye Kitimbo, Lady Justice Stella Arach-Amoko, Justice Rubby Aweri Opio, Lady Justice Faith Mwondha, and Lady Justice Prof. Lillian Tibatemwa Ekirikubinza.

Others are Justice Paul Kahaibale Mugamba, Justice Ezekiel Muhanguzi, Lady Justice Percy Night Tuhaise, and Justice Michael Chibita.

Some of these are equally easily labeled cadre judges to describe their alleged leaning towards favouring Museveni’s government in their ruling. This is usually but not always because they served in Museveni’s government.

Museveni in 2005 appointed Lady Justice Mwondha to be Inspector General of Government (IGG) in what turned out to be a tumultuous term. Justice Chibita is a former Private Secretary for Legal Affairs, in the Office of the President of Uganda. He served under Museveni in that position for seven years from 1996 to 2003. Museveni also appointed him Assistant Commissioner, in the office of the Commissioner General of the Uganda Revenue Authority until 2010.

But some of these justices have made distinguished judgments, including against Museveni’s government and party. Justice Tibatemwa was part of the Constitutional Court Coram that threw out a Museveni-driven petition to extend the tenure of former Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki. The chief justice had attained the mandatory retirement age of 70 but Museveni want him to continue serving. Tibatemwa wrote the majority ruling in a 4 to 1 decision that “there is no single provision in the Constitution that provides for the re-appointment of a retired Chief Justice”.

Lady Justice Arach-Amoko in 2006 dismissed a petition filed by Museveni’s party stalwart, Francis Babu challenging the victory of opposition linchpin iErias Lukwago’s victory as MP for Kampala Central Division.  In 2012, at the Court of Appeal, she wrote the majority opinion that nullified NRM’s Faisal Kikulukunyu’s victory as MP for Butambala County. The ruling benefited Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi, of the opposition Democratic Party.

Based on these examples it would appear that some of these justices easily decide cases on their merit and not party affiliation or President Museveni’s whims and whimpers.