The UPDF Amendment Bill 2025. A proposed compromise that could protect political opponents of the ruling party.
It’s inevitable that the The UPDF Amendment Bill 2025 will be passed into law what remains to be seen is how bad the civilians will be screwed. The rumormill has it that Parliament has been bought and paid for with one hundred million shillings. As we have seen before, when the members are bought and paid for they don’t care about the rule of law, good governance or their trajectory of their country. They are content to sell their country if it lines their pockets. The amendment will pass.
Even if Parliament creates a proper court of Judicature manned by qualified judges, the Court Martial will still be beholden to the Executive. It is not true that civilian courts are effective and independent. The civilian judicial officers are timid, lazy incompetent and behold to the executive despite the high pay and guarantee of independence. Greed and ambition make it difficult for judicial officers in Uganda to make independent decisions. They want promotions, favourable postings and to get the favor of the president. You can not see how Judiciary and JSC are treating HL Stephen Mubiru and Justice Esther Kisakye and still confidently maintain your independence and firmness. There is no one to fight for you or support you and in the end it’s only human to prioritize your personal survival. Take the example of HL Rossette Comfort Kania who had the bad luck to handle the bail application of Dr. Kiiza Besigye and his co accused. She had no alternative but to deny the bail because her appointment as a Judge was not going to be confirmed if she had granted the bail against the wishes of the state. Her Lordship is what is refered to as an Acting judge and her confirmation is subject to the Judicial Service Commission and the President. She was never going to risk her confirmation by granting bail against the wishes of the state. So don’t be deceived that you will get a fair and competent Court Martial as long as the personnel are hand picked by the Executive and as long as judicial independence is just a deception that exists only on paper.
We offer a compromise that could protect political opponents of the ruling party. We propose that political opponents and supporters of the opposition be excluded from the Jurisdiction of the Court Martial. The law should provide that the Court martial shall not try an offense involving any politician that has ever contested for public office and any person that is a publicly known supporter of opposition parties or specific candidate for political office or an employee of an NGO or any person publicly involved in advocacy for good governance or rights of other individuals. This compromise retains the benefits of the Court martial without it being used to harass and oppress political opponents.
If the Executive is truly interested in trying terrorists and armed gangs in the Court Martial its interests will be served by this compromise. Political opponents and disdents will be excluded from trial by the Court Martial and the state will continue to try terrorists and armed gangs before the Court Martial. It is a win win. However, the Executive can not agree to this because they are disingenuous about why the want civilians before the Court Martial. It simply wants political opponents under the thumb of a military tribunal that it controls in every way.
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