In the drive dubbed; ‘Rule of Law Fundraising’, Mabirizi asks citizens to perform their duty by financially supporting him, saying that democracy by its nature comes at a price. He however does not indicate how much he actually needs from the drive or for the cases.
“It shall be a duty of every citizen to promote democracy and the rule of law…All citizens of Uganda shall have the right and duty at all times to defend this Constitution…and to do all in their power to restore this Constitution. All times include imprisonment time especially my illegal detention without trial,” reads Mabirizi’s short written appeal to Ugandans dated August 11.
Mabirizi is currently detained at Luzira Maximum Security Prison following his arrest and conviction in February for contempt of court. High court civil division judge, Musa Ssekaana issued an order for his the continued attack on judicial officers.
Last week, the Court of Appeal advised Mabirizi to seek pardon from the court that sent him to prison. This was after the dismissal of applications in which Mabirizi wanted to be released.
On March 1, 2022, Mabirizi filed a set of 12 applications with different names but all seeking to be released temporarily on grounds that he filed a notice of appeal challenging Ssekaana’s decision and that the intended appeal has a higher and reasonable chance of success.
Mabirizi argued that there are serious matters of the law relating to a fair hearing, the scope of contempt of court, and the legality of the 18 months’ imprisonment.
However, the attorney general asked court to dismiss the applications on the basis that they were amounting to an abuse of the court process since Mabirizi had not yet filed his appeal. They argued that Mabirizi was a convict who had not yet filed an appeal and as such, there was nothing pending in the Court of Appeal for the justices to base on to release him.
The Court of Appeal agreed with the submissions by the attorney general and dismissed Mabirizi’s applications with costs. Before he was sent to prison, Mabirizi frequently petitioned the court on irregularities, decisions allegedly made unreasonably in the government, and those marred with procedural improprieties.
But recently while in jail, the lawyer also instituted criminal proceedings against Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Nobert Mao, over his recent memorandum of understanding with President Yoweri Museveni.
In his application filed before the Entebbe Chief Magistrate’s court, Mabirizi acting as a private prosecutor preferred four charges including common nuisance, disobedience of statutory duty, and conspiracy to defraud Mao as the president general of the Democratic Party and its secretary general Gerald Siranda Blacks.
Mabirizi alleges that Mao and Siranda and others still at large, between July 20 and 27, 2022, well aware that their respective five-year terms expired in 2020, signed a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ with Museveni holding out as chairman NRM which was an act not authorized by law thereby causing annoyance or inconvenience to the public.
The other cases filed by Mabirizi are a 2016 suit before the High court challenging Kabaka’s authority over land, a suit filed in April 2017, seeking temporary orders stopping Buganda Land Board from issuing lease titles to bona fide bibanja holders, a 2017 petition to the Constitutional court challenging the decision by parliament and cabinet to scrap the lower and upper age limit for the position of president and others.
In March 2020, Mabirizi also asked the court to quash directives issued by President Museveni in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic which included the closure of several categories of institutions like churches, bars, factories, schools, and banned musical concerts among others for 32 days.
He argued that the president had no powers to regulate people in the prevention of a contentious and infectious disease through a mere resolution without being backed up by any statutory instrument or order. But his case was deregistered from court records before it could even be heard.
In February 2022, Mabirizi sued the government over the re-appointment of Johnson Byabashaija as the commissioner-general of Uganda Prisons because he is above the 60 years retirement age and other cases.
This is not the first time that Mabirizi is fundraising to facilitate his legal battles. In October 2019, he embarked on a drive to secure Shs 300 million to sustain a series of cases he filed against the government in the East African Court of Justice.
Mabirizi, then said that the process is costly in terms of evidence collection, research, and transport and that the sustainability of his petition challenging the amendment of the constitution to lift the cap on the presidential age was dependent on public support.
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