Chief Justice Bart Katureebe has said democracy brought by the ruling NRM regime has ushered in democratised corruption.
He made the bold announcement during the open day of the Anti-Corruption court division in Kololo. The theme of this year’s event was: ‘Reject and report corruption; your responsibility.’
According to Katureebe, after the fall of Ugandan President Idi Amin Dada’s government in 1979, it was wrongly thought that moral decadence had come to an end.
“In Amin’s time, it wasn’t about corruption but there were no morals at all. Everything you got was through giving bribes,” he said.
A onetime attorney general in the ruling NRM government, Katureebe said the coming in of the NRM regime has led to democratisation of corruption.
“Corruption now starts at the family level,” Katureebe explained. “Can you imagine a parent gives a child money to give to fellow pupils since he/she is contesting for a position in school? What message are you sending?” he wondered.
He was also baffled by the fact that ministers accused of corruption still attend cabinet. “A minister comes from court and goes straight to a cabinet meeting and that’s fine,” he added. “These people [ministers] should be resigning. You cannot just go on as if everything is normal.”
As an example, Justice Katureebe cited the 2014 resignation of then UK Immigration minister Mark Harper. Harper stepped down from government after it emerged that his cleaner did not have permission to work in the UK.
Katureebe also took a swipe at lawyers who try to bribe judicial officers. Without naming names, Justice Katureebe said a lawyer tried to give a Shs 100m bribe to a judge at the Ant-Corruption court.
“The lawyer came here [Anti-Corruption court] accompanied by a student of law from Makerere University with Shs 100m and gave it to the judge but the judge told him to get lost,” he said. “After that, they start saying that judges are corrupt. Is the problem at the bench or the bar?”
“You come with a young person, you try to bribe a judge! What message are you sending?” Katureebe asked.
“I’m sure that lawyer told that young person that the judge is stupid for rejecting Shs 100m,” he added.
Katureebe intimated that he has already tabled the lawyer’s name to Francis Gimara, the president of the Uganda Law Society (ULS), for action.
“Lawyers who corrupt judges should be debarred,” he said, “Because I’m sure that lawyers asked for like [Shs] 200m from the client and then pocketed Shs 100m.”
IGG
Weighing into the debate, Mariam Wangadya, the second deputy inspector general of government (IGG), bashed the system adopted by the Court of Appeal of giving individuals who have been convicted of corruption bail before their appeals are determined.
“Can you imagine what the witnesses go through if a person they testify against in the High court gets bail at the Court of Appeal?” Wangadya asked. “What message is court sending out to the public?”
Wangadya cited the case of former NSSF managing director, David Chandi Jamwa, who is enjoying unfettered freedoms despite being sentenced to 12 years in prison by the High court.
Mike Chibita, the director of Public Prosecutions, had no kind words for the judiciary either.
“We don’t know if they [judges] are considering the public in what they are doing,” Chibita said, “but we shall respect the courts not because we want but because it’s our constitutional duty.”
dkiyonga@observer.ug