Balikuddembe: Curtain fast falling on DP bigwigs

The curtain is quickly falling on an era of DP luminaries, who once earned Uganda’s oldest political party, the Democratic Party (DP), the tag of ‘brain power.’
The latest of the party’s notables to have passed on at Nsambya hospital in Kampala on Thursday, is lawyer Joseph Mukasa Balikuddembe.
In pursuit of the DP slogan of, ‘Truth and Justice’, this group led by former DP president general Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere, took to the courts to challenge what they considered the excesses of President Museveni’s rule and the Movement system.
Balikuddembe was part of the DP bigwigs that included mainly ‘political lawyers’ as Godfrey Lule, JB Kakooza, Prof Fredrick Ssempebwa, Damiano Lubega, JB Kawanga and Edward Damulira Muguluma. Muguluma also passed on in June while the rest have either stayed away from active DP politics or have gone quiet in their retirement.
In the non-legal league were former presidential candidate and Kampala mayor John Ssebaana Kizito, who passed on in July, former DP secretary general Mariano Drametu, former Nwoya County MP Zachary Olum and former Kibuku MP Rainer Kafiire, who are largely keeping a low profile.
Although Ms Kafiire and many others crossed to the ruling NRM party, where she served as a cabinet minister alongside another former DP stalwart Maria Mutagamba, who died in June.

Brain power
Balikuddembe and colleagues sought justice from the courts and led DP to landmark successes, including in the famous Constitutional Court case that led to the nullification of the Referendum (Political Systems) Act 2000 under which the June 29, 2000 Referendum had been held.
The coram was led by then Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki together with Justices George Kanyeihamba, Arthur Oder, Wilson Tsekooko, Alfred Karokora, Joseph Mulenga, and Constance Byamugisha who ruled that the law was passed in a kangaroo style and that Parliament flouted procedure while enacting it.
Balikuddembe and others also petitioned court seeking to nullify the registration of the NRM-O under the Political Parties and Organisations Act, and to stop the funding of the Movement Secretariat by the treasury.
Even after failing to become DP president when he lost to Ssebaana Kizito, Balikuddembe still went on to serve as DP vice-president for Buganda region from 2005 to 2010 and gradually moved out of the party’s active politics.
He also served Buganda Kingdom where he was Nyonyi Nakinsige clan representative in the Buganda Lukiiko (Parliament) from 1992 to 1996, as deputy speaker Mengo Lukiiko, and a representative in Buganda Lukiiko up to the time of his death.
He was also legal advisor to the Bataka committee that recommended election to the Lukiiko based on the Masaza (counties).
In his more than four decades as a lawyer, Balikuddembe also offered his legal counsel in political cases outside DP.
His role as lead counsel for Dr Kizza Besigye’s first presidential election petition against the Electoral Commission (EC) and President Museveni stands out.
Citing that petition, Dr Besigye, describesd Balikuddembe as a “great legal mind, democracy and human rights activist.” “[He] will be greatly missed,” he said in a tweet.
Balikuddembe is a son of the late Josephine Namutebi and Martin Mukasa Muziraga of Nzizi, Bukoto County in Masaka District.
He started his academic journey from Nkoni Primary School before proceeding to Bukalasa Seminary, both in Masaka.
He spent several months in Katigondo Major Seminary before proceeding to Namilyango College in Mukono for high school.
A story is told that he wanted to become a priest but that was not to be as he was later to graduate with a law degree from the University of Dar-es-Salaam, then a college of the University of East Africa in 1968.
Balikuddembe previously worked with Ssebalu and Company Advocates and then proceeded to work with Mpungu, Balikuddembe and Company Advocates, which metamorphosed from Kiwanuka and Company Advocates when former DP president, Ben Kiwanuka, was named Chief Justice in 1972.
So, has the current DP built on the successes or improved on the failures of its era of ‘brain power’?
DP president Norbert Mao says the brain power qualities of the party are not in question.
“Who came up with the slogan that has taken over the country?” he asks referring to the famous Togikwatako slogan that Ugandans, who oppose the removal of Article 102(b) from the constitution have used to voice their rejection of the move.
While some observers and analysts have opined that DP survives only in theory, the more cynical ones call it the Dead Party.
But Mao says DP is the “most credible party” in Uganda and one that exists in the real sense of a political party, while he refers to other parties, including the ruling NRM and leading opposition party FDC, as “special purpose vehicles.”
On whether the DP he leads is measuring up to the record of its predecessor, Mr Mao says he is leading an “aggressive generation” whose aim is to take power as opposed to their predecessors.
“Politics is about pursuing power. If you don’t want to pursue power then you start an NGO. Our generation understands politics as the pursuit of power aggressively but when we talk to our people we tell them that the end goes with the means,” he says.
Straight from law school, Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago was inducted into the DP legal team and was integral to the legal challenges mounted by the party from the early 2000s.
He is an opponent to Mr Mao and a strong critic of the current DP leadership.
“He [Mao] has given lip service to the rule of law and constitutionalism. He is a lawyer and the first person to be in that position since Ben Kiwanuka and he should have taken it a notch higher. Unfortunately, he has taken a nose dive,” Mr Lukwago says.
Citing a plethora of issues he says have gone wrong in DP, including lack of internal democracy, Mr Lukwago says the current state of DP does not appeal to the country’s best brains, including lawyers.
“We need to put our party back in place. There is no leadership in place. You cannot fight for the restoration of rule of law when you don’t practice it,” he says.
Katikkiro Charles Peter Mayiga says: “Joseph Balikuddembe’s death is a big loss to the Kingdom. He has been an active member of the Lukiiko, who has relentlessly pushed for federo. He has been an experienced legal practitioner, who fought for the rights and freedoms of affected persons or groups from the courts of law wherever there was infringement by the state; the Bugerere Case where court pronounced government’s impediment of the Kabaka’s tour of that county as illegal and unconstitutional was a landmark.”