The Uganda Law Society (ULS), has endorsed the National Unity Platform (NUP) Presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu aka Bobi Wine for President in next years polls.
The President, ULS Isaac Ssemakadde has in an executive order to the coubtry’s legal fratenity noted that even though the body has maintained political neutrality since it’s establishment, the militarisation of civilian and public life and rampant corruption have led to ULS’s decision to ditch it’s known neutral stand point.
“The excessive militarisation of civilian and political life, the entrenched culture of corruption and impunity, and the total capture of state institutions, including the judiciary, under the Museveni/NRM regime have reachedapoint where neutrality equates to complicity” he said.
Ssemakadde noted that security forces have been weaponised to suppress dissent through abductions, torture, extrajudicial killings, and the unlawful trial of civilians in military courts.
This, he notes has undermined the judiciary through, “Deliberate coercion, rigged appointments, manipulated rulings, and clandestine judicial postings, rendering it a rubber stamp of militarism and political repression rather than an independent pillar of justice”.
He added, “Lawyers, journalists, citizens, and activists are routinely intimidated, arrested, or disappeared for upholding constitutional rights, as highlighted by President Yoweri Museveni’s admission of operating a black site (“fridge”) and threats of violence against voters”.
Ssemakadde noted that it’s for those reasons that he has issued the executive order in consultation with the Radical New Bar Governing Council, as a necessary act of defence of the country’s Constitution and independence of the Bar and Bench.
“The Uganda Law Society hereby unequivocally endorses Mr. Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) as candidate for President of the Republic of Uganda”.
Ssemakadde further endorsed Erias Lukwago for Kampala City Lord Mayor, Dr. Obuku Ekwaro Anthony for Oyam South Constituency MP, all candidates of the National Unity Platform (NUP) and the People’s Front for Freedom (PFF) contesting at every level and all lawyers and law students, being members or aspiring members of the Uganda Law Society, who are standing as candidates at any elective position.
Ssemakadde noted that the endorsed candidates represent the foremost credible force for restoring constitutional order, economic justice, youth empowerment, accountable governance, and the independence of institutions.
“All members of the Uganda Law Society, the wider legal community, law students, civil society organisations, and patriotic Ugandans are hereby called upon to mobilise in support of the endorsed candidates” he said.
