Law Society to teach Ugandans Will writing

The Uganda Law Society (ULS) has said it will use this year’s pro-bono week to teach Ugandans how to effectively write Wills.
Mr Bernard Oundo, the ULS president, explained that the majority of cases in family courts around the country are due to failure to leave Wills by the deceased, an omission that he said has led to family feuds.

“This year, during our pro-bono week, we want to focus on teaching Ugandans how to write a Will because most of the cases at the Family courts are as a result of people not knowing how to write Wills,” Mr Oundo said yesterday at his chambers in Kampala while meeting editors from Nation Media Group – Uganda.
He added: “We want to take one week as the Uganda Law Society and go to most of the media houses regionally and share with people on how to write Wills but we cannot effectively do that without the media.”

A Will is a legal document that sets forth someone’s wishes regarding the distribution of their property and the care of any minor children. 
The pro-bono week is expected to be held in the last week of August and will climax on September 1.
Mr Oundo further revealed that they have plans to train journalists in topics such as media law, copyright law and defamation.
Moreover, he said an independent media should be financially stable. It’s at this moment that the president of lawyers vowed to defend private media owners against government cuts  on advertisement.

Recently, President Museveni, through the Finance ministry, directed that all government adverts should go through its media outlets of Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) and the New Vision, a move seen to be intended to suffocate the privately owned media.
“This is a big concern and we shall address it. We shall look at it if at all there are any legal issues and soon issue a statement,” Mr Oundo said.

His pledge came at the backdrop of concerns raised by Mr Robert Madoi, the weekend editor of Monitor Publications, of how the proposed cut of government adverts to privately owned media would drive the media to a slippery path.

“The media should be helped to be independent. There cannot be media independence when there is no financial independence. With the proposed cut of media adverts that form about 60 percent of the total revenue, most media houses might become lapdogs instead of watch-dogs, which is a slippery path for us to take,” Mr Madoi said.

Among the editors from the NMG-U were Mr Allan Chekwech, the chief sub editor,  Ms Faith Amongin, the social media specialist, and Ms Catherine Ageno, the head of broadcast.