Buganda Road Chief Magistrate Ritah Kidasa Wanyama has convicted city lawyer Derrick Wandera with Contempt of Court charges and sentenced him to six months imprisonment.
Last week, Kidasa ordered Court orderlies to arrest Wandera inside the Courtroom as he was protesting her decision of directing him to leave the bar because he did not have a valid practicing license.
Wandera insisted that he is not responsible for the delay in renewing of his practicing license noting that he filed his application for renewal months back and has been making follow-ups but Uganda Law Council which is mandated to issue practicing licenses to lawyers have been asking him to wait.
He told Kidasa that her decision was unfair to his client who used his hard-earned money to hire him to give him legal services. He pleaded to be allowed to proceed to represent his client while he follows up with the release of his renewed practicing license which the magistrate declined to offer.
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Wandera lost his patience and told Kidasa that her decision is placing a scar on his career because the client is going to tell other potential clients that he didn’t study law and doesn’t have qualifications to represent clients in court.
He was detained in the Court cells and when he was summoned back to Court, the magistrate gave him an offer to apologise so that he is not given a custodial sentence which he declined to take insisting that if the magistrate wants to imprison him because of not having a practicing license, let her do it, which she did.
On Wednesday, Kidasa further remanded a number of accused persons and declined to hear their bail applications because lawyers who have been representing them did not have valid practicing licenses.
She explained that in doing so, she is protecting the legal practices as a trade from masquerades who are getting money from people to represent them in court when they are not licensed lawyers.
She added that it is a sign of laziness for a lawyer to reach May without a practicing license noting that the problem is that most of them apply for renewal late that is why the Uganda Law Council delays in issuing them with new ones.
One of the lawyers pleaded to the magistrate to explain to their clients that she further remanded them not because their lawyers did not study law but because Uganda Law Council did not renew their practicing license, which she did.
