Controversial Nakawa Division Chief Magistrate Christine Nantege’s judicial career is under threat after the newly appointed chairperson of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) Justice Dr Douglas Singiza confirmed that she has been placed under investigations over allegations of judicial incompetence.
The investigations resulted from the complaint filed by maverick city lawyer Male Mabirizi, opposition strongman Dr Kizza Besigye and his political assistant Hajji Obed Lutale Kamulegeya.
Both complinants accused Nantege of exhibiting a high level of incompetence when she committed Dr Besigye and Kamulegeya for criminal trial in the High Court Criminal Division pending an application of assessing their mobile phones by security before her court.
Besigye insisted that Nantege violated his right for fair hearing and legal representation when he committed him and his co-accused for trial without the presence of their legal team even though they pleaded with her to wait for them.
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Nantege is also accused of denying Besigye and other co-accused automatic court bail after spending six months on remand without being committed to the High Court for trial.
Mabirizi boasted that together with Dr Besigye and Lutale, they have enough evidence which can be used to dismiss Nantege from public service insisting that she committed a grievous offence of violating the accused person’s human rights.
“I’m waiting for the date to go and testify before the commission in the presence of Nantege. We don’t want those people to base only on evidence we wrote to them, they should summon us and we testify in person to prove our complaint in the presence of the judicial officer,” Mabirizi said
Sources inside JSC confirmed that Nantege, one of the senior magistrates in the country has not yet filed her defense against the complaint.
Dr Besigye and Lutale were kidnapped from Nairobi Kenya in 2024 and charged with offences related to treason including planning to assassinate president Museveni.
