There was drama at Mpigi High Court on 28th May 2024 when the resident judge Justice Anthony Oyuko is visibly angry that a litigant had written to him to step down from hearing his case because of bias.
The judge took two hours denigrating and berating a lawyer for representing such a client despite the lawyer’s protest that he had no hand in the matter because he had just received instructions in another application.
The lawyer’s pleas for the judge to rule on the infamous application and hear the case that brought him to court fell on deaf ears as the judge insisted on seeing the litigant first, he threatened to detain him(the applicant) had he been in court. He declared that the applicant would have to appear before him, his registrar and all the staff of his court to prove his claims and would be detained should he fail.
He pushed the matter to 11th June 2024 for the applicant to come to court. He declared in open court that he would put the file under key and lock and no one was allowed to access it till he was finished with it.
As the angry judge lashed at the lawyer, he was very angry that the applicant had a lawyer, he boasted of punishing lawyers who went against him with costs, and declared that he would not step down from the case but still insisted on the litigant appearing before him first.
This whole rant smelled, looked and sounded bad for ‘justice for all” a tagline of the judiciary, one of the arms of government. One was left thinking whether justice should only be done
and not be seen to be done.
While the young lawyer defended his client in absentia and insisted on the judge giving a ruling to proceed to the case that had brought him to court, the full courtroom took in the day’s unfolding with mixed impressions.
Some cheered on the judge, a few wore pained expressions on their faces, probably worried about the fate of their cases or their lawyers in such an impartial court, wishing they had the good luck of being defended by a lawyer willing to fight for them as to face off with an irate judge.
Many identified with the fate of the unfortunate lawyer and his client because the tales of justice at Mpigi Court are not for the faint-hearted.
The problematic letter was asking the judge to step down from M.A 230, 231 and 210 of 2023 all arising out of Civil Revision No.6 of 2022 between Kisitu Goerge William Vs Night Nabbanja, Gertrude Namagembe, Haji Azizi Kasirye and Kiryowa Robert.
Mzee Kisitu is an 85-year-old who has been in court he says his problems started when he was left with the responsibility of distributing land amongst his family.
Two of his sisters took him to court they shared the land, he was left with a small portion which Kiryowa was awarded in an exparte order.
He learnt of this from the Police and went to Mpigi court to set aside this order but has not been given an audience. We shall follow up on this case to see how it ends.
