{UAH} The rule of law in ug

RETIRED JUSTICE KANYEIHAMBA ON THE 2006 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION PETITION ~ Ghosts and the Law? ______________________________ "A week later, a panellist who is a close friend from university days called me late in the night and pointed out that history would never forgive us if we did not allow the Petition and order the holding of another Presidential election. He proceeded to enumerate a number of affidavits of witnesses and legal and judicial decisions he urged that I should read before confirming my opinion on the matter. I was bothered and became restless. ....I woke up in the night and read the materials my friend had identified for me. ....I was amazed by what I found. History would not look at us kindly if we dismissed the Petition. ....When we next had a straw poll, the results showed that five of us would allow the Petition and two would dismiss it. ...When we next met, one of our colleagues on the panel whom we respect asked us a number of questions. The first was that while he was committed to allowing the Petition, could the court or anyone else guarantee that in a repeated election no such malpractices and breaches of the law could not occur again or even increase in the election that would be held after publication of our findings and orders. He further wished to know whether it was not possible that the army might ignore our orders and instead stage a coup d'etat and militarily reinstate its Commander-in-Chief and suspend the Constitution. None of us could guarantee anything...however some of us pointed out that that the army had promised to honour the decision of the Court and the Electoral Commission had publicly declared it was fully facilitated and ready to conduct a new election....our colleague was not satisfied with these assurances. He therefore informed us there and then that he had changed his mind. He intimated that even though he was fully convinced that the Presidential election was flawed but for the sake of peace in the country, he would dismiss the Petition. His decision left those of us who still wanted to allow the Petition with a majority....the presiding officer was asked to prepare the court's collective decision that would show a split of 4 to 3 in favour of allowing the Petition and we fixed the date and time of the delivery of our findings and orders. .....Just before we were about to rise and enter the court room where we were scheduled to publicly reveal our findings and orders, the Chief Justice, as if by prior arrangement, stopped us and announced that it was essential even at this last minute, he wanted to give everyone a last chance to reconsider their final position on the Petition, he asked each one of us to individually say "yes" or "no" to allow or dismiss the Petition. While six of us maintained our opinions we had expressed the previous week, my friend who had taken the trouble to warn me in the middle of the night that I should allow the Petition uttered the word that left most of us shocked and that word was "dismiss." Some of us could not believe our ears. I looked at him but his eyes were looking down as if he were ashamed of what he had just said. I said nothing but after a few moments, he addressed me and said, "I am sorry George, my friend, I took you down the garden path and left you there"......it slowly dawned on me as it does now, that the road to genuine democracy, the rule of law and constitutionalism remains a long one, bumpy and unpredictable.'" G.W. Kanyeihamba, The Blessing and Joy of Being Who You Are, Pages 380-388

"Fortune favors the bold"!
Sent by my ihand!

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