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Last year, on February 7, 2025, at the judiciary’s ceremonial opening of the New Law Year, the President of the Uganda Law Society (ULS) was unceremoniously denied the opportunity to speak.
The bar is an essential component in the realisation of a democratic society that guarantees respect for human rights and ensures access to justice for all. To exclude the bar from a forum meant to audit the government’s obligations to the public and reflect on the state of justice is constitutionally absurd.
It is precisely because of this exclusion that on February 5, 2026, the ULS chose to hold its own opening of the New Law Year, to speak openly about the realities confronting both our members and the public we serve, and to place before the nation a true and fair audit of their governance as well as the fundamental issues affecting justice delivery that cannot be ignored.
We chose to focus on two critical urgent themes: First, practicing law amid military rule. The legal profession in Uganda now operates in an environment heavily overshadowed by excessive militarization, where military forces and militarized tactics increasingly intrude into civilian justice processes, democratic exercises, and the independent practice of law.
The government is imposing state-of- emergency-like measures nationwide, citing national security, but without the necessary constitutional and statutory checks. You may recall the recent shutdown of the internet and social media, which had catastrophic effects on the delivery of goods and services to the people.
Meanwhile, the Office of the DPP and the courts seem complicit in this move, as recently seen in their draconian handling of cases like the blanket sanctioning of trumped-up charges, the blanket denial of bond, bail and habeas corpus for protesters and government critics, and the routinization of delay in fixing cases challenging government-initiated restrictions on free speech, public gatherings and other human rights concerns, resulting in effective approval of authoritarianism.
These actions, by Justice Law and Order institutions, suggest a pattern of rubber- stamping executive decisions rather than acting as an independent check on power. During the recently-concluded elections, this unwarranted militarization manifested starkly through the widespread deployment of military personnel in what should remain purely civilian and democratic spaces.
Lawyers, alongside ordinary citizens, faced unlawful arrests, violence, intimidation, and coercion. Prominent human rights defenders have been targeted, NGOs and CSOs arbitrarily suspended, activists arbitrarily arrested, detained, assaulted, and are now likely to be tried in military courts for performing their professional or civic duties.
These actions undermine the independence of the bar and the rule of law. The ULS is now dealing with an alarming surge in enforced disappearances, abductions, extrajudicial killings and prolonged pre-trial detention.
DENIAL OR SEVERE RESTRICTION OF BAIL
This fundamental constitutional right has become routine, transforming it from a norm into an exceptional privilege granted sparingly.
This has caused many Ugandan court users to wonder and complain angrily: “what are lawyers for if courts won’t listen to them, or adhere to the basic principles of law such as the right to bail, preferring instead to adhere to state expediency or convenience?”
Another troubling issue is the shrinking civic space in Uganda. On January 13, the NGO Bureau suspended the operating permits of several civil society organizations under vague claims of “national security.”
These are attempts to intimidate, silence civil society. The statutory mandate of the bar compels us to speak plainly: Uganda’s excessive militarization of civilian and judicial spheres inflicts deep, systemic harm on human rights, democratic integrity, and the legal profession’s ability to function independently.
There are no easy fixes for this mess. Only a Radical New bar can step up and kickstart proportionate resistance and resilience efforts, and the February 5 dialogue was the starting point.
The author is vice president, Uganda Law Society.
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