Retired Supreme court judge George Kanyeihamba recently had a grandfatherly moment with Cavendish University Uganda students.
Dubbed “Justice Kanyeihamba’s premier conversation with students: Kanyeihamba’s reflections on Uganda’s constitutional history, constitutionalism today and projections for the future,” the event lasted three hours, in which he presented and answered questions at the university’s law school situated on Bukoto street, Kamwokya, Kampala on May 13.
Kanyeihamba challenged the students to be courageous and vigorous so as to bring about a better Uganda for future generations. He intimated to them how, despite his old age, he was managing a busy schedule that included maintaining a weekly column in Sunday Monitor since retirement.
Urging them to be courageous and purposeful, he said: “You are still young; you ought to read a lot and widely and work hard using the law to make Uganda better. I have escaped death three times. Many are disappointed that I’m still alive! Others have wished me death several times, but I cannot give up defending the public good.”
He added: “The Christian integrity my parents imparted in me has remained in me despite the many problems I have gone through. But why don’t you do the same? Is none of you Christian?”
He challenged them to do what their conscience tells them is good for Uganda, rather than what powerful people dictate even when it is against the Constitution and the law.
Kanyeihamba narrated how he felt betrayed by President Museveni, who embraced the 1995 Constitution with gusto, but later started tampering with it.
“As chairman of the Legal Drafting committee, there is no word in that Constitution that I did not scrutinize. Though in his first speech about the Constitution, Museveni said he would go back to the bush if anyone tampered with it, he himself removed the term limits and is scheming to remove the age limit,” Kanyeihamba charged.
He observed that the current implementation and enforcement of the Constitution has diverted from the intended fashion. Hence the Constitution is no longer popular as the masses are not consulted anymore during amendments to it.
PARALYZED JUDICIARY
Kanyeihamba said the judiciary has lost independence and become paralyzed, simply becoming accountable to Museveni the man: “The judiciary has been captured not so much by the executive but by the presidency”.
He said parliament has lost the powers of making and unmaking the Constitution, now grabbed by the NRM caucus.
“Over the years, the NRM party has taken over the power of making law: ideas are initiated in NRM, then discussed secretly by the NRM caucus. Parliament simply passes the caucus’ resolutions, sometimes with bribes to compromise them,” he added. He lamented that what is now regarded as the supreme law of the land is not the Constitution but the resolutions of the NRM caucus.
He said even the process of appointing judges has lost its constitutional stipulations. “When judges were nominated, as is still the case in Kenya and other countries, names are published in the media, so that the public can discuss them. But why are the president and the Judicial Service Commission ignoring the provisions of the Constitution?” he queried.
He warned that unless the young generation think and work hard, corruption and breach of laws will continue unabated. “If you have a government that is corrupt, then they will be happy [to] do nothing, [because] birds of the same feather flock together. By the nature of sins committed in the judiciary lately, many judges and lawyers should have been suspended or dismissed. Nonetheless, nothing is being done.”
Dr Olive Sabiiti, dean, faculty of Law, told The Observer the conversation was part of the university’s routine activities of equipping students with practical skills, role models and experiences that should impact on their lives. She received a number of books authored by Kanyeihamba that he donated to the university.
Kanyeihamba promised to keep returning to the institution for intellectual discourses with the students.
jmusinguzi@observer.ug