THE LAW IS AN ASS...(Is there no cause?)

 

So, three days ago I wrote this blog "THE LAW IS AN ASS..." I got swift readership, lot of encouragement and then I also got a whiplash across my face! Not that I expected any less, but Why? I had touched the leopards... (refer to Gen. Kaguta speeches to fill the blanks in!) as some people thought.

It is interesting that the initial reactions of correction I got were from the learned friends as they thought I had attacked the sanctity of the priests of the "temple of Justice." Not at all brethren, not at all. This was only a case of mistaken identity and reading at cross purposes (if there is any such thing!). In fact I did quite the opposite if you care to read my article and read it well. What I did was to raise a flag on a seething wound that is swiftly going septic, a weapon of mass destruction quickly coming together, which if it is not handled well can potentially affect a lot of things beyond our own personal spaces.

Let me illuminate; in 2016 my partners and I raised some investment to carry out a major project in one part of Uganda that has had serious land issues. I recall driving some potential investors to this part of the country and showing them the land that we had acquired and asking them to support the next phase that called for serious capital investment. One specific gentleman I will never forget, an American guy, told the others who were with him: "Do not place your money here; land issues in Uganda are very volatile. You will end up loosing your money!" First, I was shocked at his boldness to his friends, then I was sad for dear Uganda (“O Uganda may God uphold thee!”), then I quickly transited to some pensive introspection and wondered if surely there was no cause to this astounding statement.  Had my people really come to this that now internationally we were known as land fraudsters?

Alas, there was cause! I was to discover first hand only a few months after that utterance the ridiculousness of the land issues in dear country (Story for another day). Therefore, I did not speak lightly nor redundantly when I mentioned what I did in my blog. I know for a fact that there is a lot of Judges that are doing their best to ensure that justice is served (I know a couple of such). But I also know there has been a few that issued terribly shocking judgments that have costed a lot of honest Ugandans their life’s savings and in some cases their lives due to broken hearts.

I am reminded of this land case where the mountain of evidence against the defendant could not stop the judge presiding over the matter to pass a shocking ruling in favor of the defendant. Everyone in court (and the matter for the complainant was handled by a rather competent senior counsel) including the defendant’s lawyer was in utter shock. This not withstanding that the case had trudged on for over five years up to this point and had costed the complainant loads of costs, only to experience an abortion of justice! That specific case is currently on Appeal and it has been over Four years now; it hasn't been heard yet. In the meantime, this bought the defendant time to wreck havoc on ground to the extent that even if he lost the case on appeal it only gives the Complainant an empty nest (never mind that there was a court order to maintain status quo with case on appeal). Of course, the circumstances leading to this state of affairs are so telling as to the state of some unscrupulous officers in the lands offices as well, who will work for and with anyone throwing potent “green” at them. Well, like I said, "the law is an ass!"

In my tribe we have a proverb that goes "omulya mamba abeera omu navumaganya e’kika" loosely translated it means, "it only takes one bad apple to spoil the barrel" or "others reputations are often sadly concluded from the misdeeds of one of their kind." Whilst my blog was not about the judges but rather about the manipulative Ugandans that will litigate on anything including matters where they flatly know the truth and the fact that it is not anywhere in their version of the story, my point was that these kinds of people have taken advantage of technicalities in the laws and exploit them to the extent that they end up getting "justice" which they then ride upon to cause so much destruction in their wake, which destruction in any case is the least of their worries. The situation is dire and must urgently be fixed otherwise people can only take so much.

Now to my brothers and sisters in the Legal profession, there is another way rather than trying to point out apparent "misdeeds" of the legally ignorant when they stand up to comment on this “divine language” of the law; stand up and be counted. Fight for the justice for which you burnt many precious hours learning to defend. When weird stories come up over matters legal, provide clarity on these matters where you can and as well make an effort to understand the full story. When two media houses post the same story two days apart from each other and there is a loud din from the competent, what does that tell you? You leave matters of interpretation to the aggrieved, and interpret they always will.

I challenge my brothers and sister of the "learned tribe", rise up and steer this ship of the law back on course, otherwise soon, the much-treasured profession will soon be a slaughter house where the law will be the treasured tool to effect the final blow upon those that most need justice. It is no longer OK for you to standby and look the other way when so much is at stake and their purpose with the pride of your profession. In time past you were known as the defenders of the weak, the vanguards of Justice and the dependable ones. There comes a time when there is cause for a fraternity to rise up and defend their pride .

My question to you learned friends, is in the quotation from the bible below.

1 Samuel 17:28-30 - King James Version

28 And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men; and Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why camest thou down hither? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart; for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle.

29 And David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause?

30 And he turned from him toward another, and spake after the same manner: and the people answered him again after the former manner.

….Is there No cause?