The newly appointed Civil Division of the High Court Judge Simon Peter Kinobe has been warned and advised to mute his social media activism and stop commenting on several issues on the social media otherwise he will be humiliated and end up in prison on charges of annoying the High Court Judge on the Social media.
The warning resulted from Justice Kinobe’s post on his X handle where he said, “Yvonne Namaganda. The brave 10-year-old Dorm Captain, who kept going back and forth, rescuing other girls and carrying them to safety during a fire. May God continue blessing her soul:”
Maverick city lawyer Male Mabirizi immediately responded to Justice Kinobe’s post, “ So you want to continue on these streets after becoming ‘Judge’? Will you manage the terrains? Won’t you turn into another Ssekaana when your body parts are measured?”
It should be remembered that before being promoted to the Court of Appeal Justice Musa Ssekaana of the High Court Civil Division imprisoned Mabirizi for 18 months on offences of contempt of Court after confirming that he together with other people on Social Media discussed a Court case involving MTN Uganda which was before him.
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Mabirizi together with fugitive Uganda Law Society president Isaac Ssemakadde used social media platforms to discuss Justice Ssekaana’s body including his family.
This annoyed the Chief Justice Owiny Dollo and he advised Ssemakadde to apologise to Justice Ssekaana or be imprisoned.
Highly placed sources in judiciary confirmed to this website that all Justices, Judges and Judicial Officers have social media accounts and follow whatever transpires they fear to comment, post or react.
So, what they normally do is to go to someone’s inbox to advise them over any matter.
They are now advising Kinobe a former Uganda Law Society president to do the same.
Justice Dollo pleaded with lawyers and the entire public to stop attacking judicial officers on social media via public platforms explaining that because of the nature of their job, they don’t have the opportunity to defend themselves like organizing press conferences or making phone calls on radios or televisions.
When he was still the chairperson of the Judicial Service Commission, one of the reasons why Justice Benjamin Kabiito together with other members recommend the removal of Justice Esther Kitimbo Kisakye from the Judiciary was because she held a press conference outside the Supreme Court building when she got into a misunderstanding with Justice Dollo and other Supreme Court Justices on the panel presiding over a presidential election petition filed by former National Unity Platform (NUP) candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) against president Museveni.
In a related development, the newly appointed Justices of the Court of Appeal have turned tables on the new court building.
Judicial officers and staff sitting on the said building were evicted and taken to other places as they create offices for new justices who include: Justice Ssekaana, Justice Sabiiti Cornelia Kakooza, Justice Stella Alibateese, Justice Florence Nakachwa, Justice Byaruhanga Jesse Rugyema, Justice John Mike Musisi, Justice Ketrah Kitariisibwa Katunguka, and Justice Nambayo Esta.
After getting space for them and their assistants, they immediately started asking for work, telling the Registrar and their boss the Deputy Chief Justice Richard Butera that they came to work and clear the court backlog not to enjoy office and other additional benefits.
Justice Ssekaana and Justice Alibateese were the first to make their first appearance on the panel of three Justices of the Court of Appeal in the session scheduled early this month.
However, sources within the Court of Appeal revealed to this website that the new justices were advised to go slow because the court they were deployed to works in sessions and for a session to be announced, the court administration has to first establish that there is enough money to facilitate the session.
