PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has urged lawyers to cooperate with the Government in the fight against corruption instead of helping the culprits escape justice.
Speaking at the annual general meeting of the Uganda Law Society (ULS) at Botanical Beach Hotel in Entebbe on Saturday evening, Museveni said graft was the country’s number one enemy and everybody’s cooperation was needed to fight the vice. He appealed to the lawyers not to defend corrupt people.
“I don’t know if it is a good idea to defend corrupt people. If you know the facts of the case and you know your client is guilty, why don’t you advise him to plead guilty if your principal is to get the truth? How do you serve society by obscuring the truth?” he asked.
It was the first time the President was invited to the ULS annual event. Lawyers from Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda also attended the meeting, during which a new executive was voted in.
Museveni defended the Land Amendment Bill, saying certain land offences should be criminalised.
“We are proposing amendments to the land laws so that it is not only left to be a civil matter. In illegal evictions, all people involved must be held criminally responsible.
People are taking advantage of the ignorant and gullible. They even use Museveni’s name to intimidate them and they get scared.”
He added that the proposed amendments were meant to level the playing field between often powerful landlords and poor tenants.
“The problem is having unequal factors in the equation. Some of the landlords have education, money and land. They are knowledgeable and financially empowered. The tenants have no money, are ignorant and financially disabled.
So the playing field is not level.”
The President further observed that African culture was under threat from Western influence. He advised lawyers to research on African jurisprudence, addressing issues that had been left out by the adopted Western legal systems.
“There are some Western things that we cannot accept, for example homosexuality,” he noted.
“Europeans are saying it is a right and we are saying it is a deviation. You don’t kill them, but you know it is abnormal. But the Europeans come and say it is an alternative way of life,” Museveni added.
He commended the lawyers for helping the Government uphold the law in spite of their small number.
The Government intends to increase the salaries of its lawyers so as to attract more of them, Museveni announced.
At the occasion, the President presented awards to High Court Justice Remmy Kasule and Prof. Frederick Sempebwa in recognition of their contributions to the legal system in Uganda and East Africa.
The outgoing president of the Uganda Law Society, Oscar Kihika, said there was undue interference with court orders by the resident distrcit commissioners and the Police. He also asked the President to address corruption in the public sector.
Bruce Kyerere was voted in as the new president of the society, with Okalany as his deputy, Deepa Verma as the secretary and Steven Masembe as the treasurer. Other members of the executive are Komakech Kilama, Muhumuza, J.M. Kiwuuwa and Eva Luswata.
