Besigye Lawyer Urges Courts Against Retreating From Duty to Protect Liberty

Uganda's judiciary is increasingly retreating from its constitutional duty to safeguard personal liberty, a prominent lawyer has argued, pointing to the recent denial of bail to former Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago. Abubaker Sekanjako, a lawyer representing opposition figure Dr. Kizza Besigye, expressed concern that courts are favoring detention over granting bail, even when the law provides them with discretion.

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The Constitution presumes every accused person innocent until proven guilty. No matter the offence, whether it is murder, terrorism, or treason, so long as a person has not been tried and convicted, they remain an accused person. Courts must approach every application from that constitutional starting point.

Sekanjako's remarks came during a public discussion hosted by the Uganda Law Society, themed "Remand without Remedy: Is Uganda's Judiciary Failing Human Rights?" He observed a pattern in recent judicial decisions that suggests a shift away from upholding the rights of accused persons. This trend is particularly worrying given the ongoing public debate surrounding prolonged pre-trial detention and access to bail for individuals, especially opposition politicians facing criminal charges.

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Unfortunately, what we increasingly see is that the gravity of an allegation is treated as if it is already proof of guilt. The seriousness of the charge overshadows the constitutional presumption of innocence.

"The Constitution presumes every accused person innocent until proven guilty," Sekanjako stated. "No matter the offence, whether it is murder, terrorism, or treason, so long as a person has not been tried and convicted, they remain an accused person. Courts must approach every application from that constitutional starting point." He criticized the tendency for the gravity of an allegation to overshadow the constitutional presumption of innocence, effectively treating the seriousness of a charge as proof of guilt.

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We realised that unless we intervened, nobody would adequately defend those constitutional guarantees.

Sekanjako, who has been involved in several significant constitutional and election cases in Uganda, also spoke about his intervention in a Constitutional Court petition challenging a section of the Human Rights Enforcement Act. He and other lawyers sought to join the case, believing the Attorney General was not adequately defending fundamental constitutional protections. Their intervention aimed to ensure that rights protecting citizens from state abuse were not weakened through litigation. He emphasized that bail is fundamentally about liberty, not punishment.

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We had a clear position. We believed these protections are central to Uganda's constitutional order. We were not joining the case merely as friends of the court; we had a direct interest in ensuring that rights which protect every Ugandan from abuse by the state are not weakened through litigation.