Kakwenza: What pains is not noise of the oppressor, but silence of Judiciary

It won’t go down too nice with some people that the legendary Martin Luther King Jr died at just 39, but his accomplishments suggest 93 would be a more appropriate number. His speeches are still some of the most quoted world over. It is he who said, “In the end we shall remember, not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” That tells you one doesn’t need to live for 100 years or be in power for decades and decades in order to leave a legacy. A discussion better held cross-legged, sipping away at a cup of rich, aromatic black coffee and gazing at the lake!
Point though is, there is nothing as bamboozling and flummoxing as the complete silence of Uganda’s Judiciary in the very disturbing case of award-winning writer Kakwenza Rukirabashaija. An officious by-stander would be forgiven for thinking Uganda has no such thing as a Judiciary!
The very controversial arrest, brutal torture and illegal detention of Kakwenza on charges of offensive communication has dominated public discourse nationally and internationally over the last few weeks. The pictures of Kakwenza’s gruesomely scarred body have since gone viral and boy, are they ghastly to behold! His tormentors made no attempt to hide their workmanship; they are calmly and nonchalantly sending a strong message to all and sundry!
On one hand we have witnessed security agencies in a country that claims to respect rule of law coming out to openly, blatantly and shamelessly break every law in the statute books just because the son of the President, Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has been “insulted”. So because Muhoozi has been insulted, it is okay for the security agencies to carry out a brutal and illegal arrest, take the boy to an ungazetted detention, torture him in a ghastly manner and ignore two court orders for his release.
Because the complainant is the President’s son, it is okay for a court, whose earlier orders to release the boy were ignored and laughed at in the media by the security agencies, to accept to charge him with “offensive communication”, while completely silent about the obvious torture he has been subjected to (which was well-publicised in the media), and silent about the orders that have been pissed upon. Strange!
The Human Rights Enforcement Act expressly outlaws the trial of a torture victim – regardless of what crime they may have committed. But our Judiciary – apart from a handful of judges (Ralph Ochan, now retired, plus Patricia Basaza and one or two others) – has consistently ignored this law. 
A good and functional Judiciary should have exercised its inherent power, to proceed suo moto (take action, on its own motion) and called the file for the attention of the higher bench and make the necessary orders. Responsible judges do not sit back and wait for matters to be brought to their desks, when these are matters of extreme national importance and which carry grave implications for the rule of law, the integrity and independence of the Judiciary, and the overall administration of justice. 
Those who benefit from the regime may find the Kakwenza debacle comical or even right; but the truth is that it is illegal, it is wrong, it is downright evil. We are destroying the social and moral fabric of Uganda and respect for the law, in broad daylight. We are entrenching dictatorship, brutality and State-inspired violence and endangering the long-term security of the country.
One keeps wondering what this Judiciary is up to; but one thing is for sure: our judicial officers have succeeded in making a complete mockery of the entire concept of justice. The world is witnessing a judiciary in a grand conspiracy against the people of Uganda - from whom, the Constitution says, they derive their judicial power and on whose behalf they exercise it. 
The world is beholding judicial officers, actively working against the exercise of their constitutional mandate, and who, with commendable effort, have succeeded in bringing the court into contempt.
Strangest of all though, is that even with blunders like these, the judicial officers still demand respect from the public and are greatly offended when intimations of disrespect filter through.
Mr Tegulle is an advocate of the High Court of Uganda     
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