ULS Warns of Growing Tyranny, Urges Legal Resistance

The President of the Uganda Law Society (ULS), Isaac Ssemakadde, has warned members of the legal fraternity, calling on lawyers across the country to resist the mounting threat of authoritarianism.

He cautioned that silence in the face of injustice would make the legal profession complicit in the ongoing erosion of democracy.

Speaking on behalf of the Radical New Bar Governing Council during a ceremony held in honour of the late Senior Counsel Sam Njuba, Ssemakadde described the current political trajectory as a dangerous drift away from democratic governance and toward dictatorship.

“Resist injustice before it is netted out to you or your loved ones,” Ssemakadde warned. “Resist boldly, before you are cited for breach of decorum.”

His comments come amid growing concern among civil society groups and the legal community over shrinking civic space, increasing political intolerance, and the targeted harassment of lawyers and human rights defenders.

According to Ssemakadde, in autocratic systems, legal professionals are often among the first to be targeted including those who once defended the regime.

“Tyranny has no loyalty,” he said. “It does not honour service previously rendered. Once it has finished with its critics, it turns inward and purges its supporters.”

Ssemakadde also directed a sharp message to lawyers who have aligned themselves with repression, warning that history would judge them for enabling abuses of power.

“When tyranny falls and it always falls you will be judged,” he said. “You may escape the wrath of the tyrant temporarily, but you will not escape the verdict of history or the judgment of a free people.”

The ceremony featured the formal presentation of the memoir of the late Senior Counsel Sam Njuba to Advocate Abed Nasser Mudiobole, who was commended for his unwavering defense of the rule of law and democratic principles.

“Let us not be the generation that watched justice die in silence,” Ssemakadde urged, encouraging lawyers to follow the example of Njuba, “who defended the law even when it cost him everything.”

The event underscored the ULS’s ongoing commitment to resisting authoritarianism and reasserting the role of the legal profession in safeguarding democratic values.

Ssemakadde reaffirmed the Law Society’s constitutional mandate under Section 3(c) of the Uganda Law Society Act to protect and assist the public in legal matters affecting their rights and freedoms.

“Comrade Nasser,” Ssemakadde concluded, addressing Mudiobole, “we stand with you always.”