Ono Bwino can exclusively report that exiled Supreme Court justice Dr Esther Kitimbo Kisaakye has asked Uganda Law Society to shield her from President Museveni’s tribunal which is set to start probing her over allegations of misconduct and indiscipline.
Uganda Law Society President Senior Counsel Isaac Ssemakadde who is also presiding over the society leadership in exile and other leaders are strategizing on how to intervene and shield Justice Kisaakye’s constitutional and human rights because it is one of their core responsibilities
According to highly placed sources at the Kololo based Uganda Law Society building, through a letter, Justice Kisaakye told Ssemakadde and friends that Museveni cannot subject her to a tribunal yet she resigned from the office of the judge of the highest court on the land.
She insisted that the country’s constitution allows her and other judges from the High Court and above to resign after clocking 60 years of age that is why she gave her resignation letter to Museveni when she clocked 64 years old.
More Read
However, in 2023, Museveni, basing on the Judiciary Administration Act declined to accept Kisaakye’s prayer to retire early noting that he cannot allow her to retire when there are pending indiscipline charges against her.
She advised her to wait until the conclusion of entire investigations.
Highly placed sources told this website that Justice Kisaakye’s letter comes at a time when logistics are in the pipeline to facilitate the work of the probe appointed by Museveni to try her and it is expected to start its job early next year immediately after the 2026 presidential elections.
Justice Kisaakye’s troubles stem from the 2021 presidential election petition filed by National Unity Platform (NUP) presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) where he was challenging the victory of President Museveni.
Justice Kisaakye accused Chief Justice Owiny Dollo of confiscating her files containing her rulings including one from serial litigant Male Mabirizi’s where he asked the CJ to recuse himself from the panel of justices presiding over Bobi Wine’s petition on grounds that he has conflict of interest since he was a personal lawyer to President Museveni and even met him days before the hearing of Bobi Wine’s petition.
Kisaakye accused Dollo of ordering court staff to switch off her microphone when she was reading her rulings after accusing her of refusing to share it with him before she publicly read it.
Justice Dollo denied all the accusations and with support from other Supreme Court justices and Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka who is also a personal lawyer to Museveni, they filed a complaint against Kisaakye in the Judicial Service Commission.
After primary investigations, a report was given to President Museveni advising him to appoint a tribunal to investigate Kisaakye
Museveni appointed retired Supreme Court judge Justice Galdino Okello to head the tribunal which also has Justice Jotham Tumwesigye and Justice Winfrida Beatrice Karosso as members.
He appointed Odumbi James Owere as counsel for the tribunal whose job is to investigate whether the behaviour and conduct of Kisaakye violated the code of conduct of the justices of the supreme court;
Whether Justice Kisakye had a duty to adhere to the practice of sharing her rulings in the said matter with other justices on panel before its delivery;
Whether Kisaakye disobeyed the directive of the Chief Justice, as head of the panel, to deliver her rulings in the said matter on a date designated;
Whether Kisaakye’s conduct of delivering her ruling as a single Justice of the Supreme Court in a matter where quorum had been empaneled, was in breach of the Uganda Code of Judicial conduct and the practice of the court;
Whether the verbal public statements of Justice Kisaakye on the 18th and 19th of March 2021 brought the image of the Judiciary in disrepute;
Whether Justice Kisaakye associated with lawyer Mabirizi and addresses a public media and whether her actions breached the provisions of the Uganda Code of Judicial Conduct;
Whether Justice Kisaakye was absent from duty when she extended her approved leave period and did not report back for duty at the Supreme Court upon her return from medical leave and whether a recommendation should be made to the president for the said judge to be removed from the office of Justice of the Supreme Court of Uganda.
Justice Kisaakye challenged all the decisions made by the Judicial Service Commission, President Museveni and Chief Justice Dollo in the Constitutional Court but since 2021, her lawyers led by Constitutional law giant Peter Walubiri have been pushing for a date for their matters be heard before the tribunal kicks-off but in vain
Justice Kisaakye ran into exile in United States of America claiming that her life was in danger.
