13-7-2026.
Distinguished Colleagues,
MEA CULPA.
The man who called himself “The Lawyer’s Lawyer” while seeking to represent us on the 7th Judicial Service Commission no longer speaks for this Bar.
On 15 June 2026, a UPDF commando unit stormed the home of our brother, Senior Advocate Ssalongo Hajji Erias Lukwago, former Lord Mayor and iconic defender of the Constitution, and abducted him. State impunity, in broad daylight, broadcast live for maximum psyop effect.
“The Lawyer’s Lawyer” apparently saw nothing, heard nothing, and said nothing. His unforgivable silence screams loud.
In the euphoria of the September 28 Revolution, we set out to build structures of hope. We reached out to the more humane elements among regime sympathizers, seeking middle ground for the future of our noble profession.
Instead, we nearly traded the integrity of the Bar for transactional gain.
Having learned this, we issued Executive Order RNB No. 6 of 2025, proclaiming the end of performative professional neutrality in an era of militarized politics.
The Uganda Law Society, under the Radical New Bar Governing Council, is no longer neutral.
There is no neutrality in a militarized state.
I regret my attempt to serve as a bridge-builder between defenders of the rule of law and the Doubting Thomases, “pragmatists,” and fence-sitters. That attempt at an alliance has failed. I disassociate completely. I was wrong to associate with Elison Karuhanga @elisonk.
Neutrality Fallacy
Karuhanga and I have not spoken since Boxing Day 2025. He called me at 4:30pm East African Time. We spoke for 49 minutes.
He told me he was under immense pressure from undisclosed quarters to publicly disassociate from the RNB after Executive Order No. 6 of 2025.
I failed to persuade him not to issue that apology for a neutral Bar.
After all, the role of the Judicial Service Commission is to select the best and brightest among us, grounded in the truth that the Judiciary is the guardian of constitutionalism, and to place them in an environment worthy of that duty.
The Radical New Bar selects its representative to the Judicial Service Commission on one basis: that the person is themselves qualified to understand this.
The fact that Karuhanga can now be found preaching “neutrality” in the middle of a military coup on the Constitution proves he has been misrepresenting us. And misleading himself.
He subsequently parted ways with the RNB in a cowardly op-ed published in the New Vision, insisting the Uganda Law Society “should remain neutral” while people were being abducted and military officers glorified impunity on X.
This was never about doctrine. The fracture laid bare the real fault line between us: the temptation of proximity to Establishment power versus the Bar’s sacred duty to the wananchi and the rule of law.
Where was the robust defense of professional sanctity by "The Lawyer’s Lawyer” when one of our own was dragged away, tortured, and brazenly mocked by the UPDF Chief of Defence Forces?
Selective muteness in the face of tyranny is not neutrality; it is complicity dressed in procedural robes.
Bridge-Building Fallacy
For years, regime apologists have told us: “The problem is that we have not built strong enough bridges between the people, the wananchi, and the military-dynasty, the establishment.”
That notion is wrong. Power in Uganda is not a conversation or a fair debate between equals. It is the gun versus the law.
Associating with elites and careerists deeply embedded as strategists for CDF Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba and allied military networks hellbent on subverting the Constitution was not bridge-building. It was an invitation to co-option.
In hindsight, it was misguided optimism bordering on hubris.
Bridges imply reciprocity and shared foundations. What we face today is not a river to cross but a fortress that extracts loyalty while offering sinecures.
”The Lawyer’s Lawyer” easily found his voice for a New Vision op-ed on neutrality, and for extraordinarily detailed analysis on Spaces on X.
He has yet to find it to defend the inviolability of the Bar after the Chief of Defence Forces called for its destruction on 15 June 2026.
His silence screams loud.
Why?
The dynasty does not seek partnerships; it seeks instruments. We erred in imagining otherwise.
Therefore, RNB must break from illusions of access. Our duty is to the wananchi, to the rule of law, and to the Republic.
A dictatorship is a raincloud that will soak everyone. Even those seeking shelter under the roof of the Dictator will be washed out by the subsequent floodwaters that will find them there.
Either be firm in the struggle, or don’t join it. This is not a career path.
We ask for the prayers and support of all steadfast lawyers, and the wananchi, that we do not make the Karuhanga mistake again.
Isaac K. Ssemakadde, SC
Your Exiled Leader
#ResistLawlessness #LawyersStrike26June
#ULSAt70 #FreeAllPoliticalPrisoners
#BangTheTable #BackOnTrack #RNBVision2060
@ntvuganda @nbstv @nilepostnews @ubctvuganda @newvisionwire @observerug @ugandarn @mkainerugaba
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