KAMPALA – Mr. Simon Peter Kinobe, the President of the Uganda Law Society (ULS) has distanced himself and the Society from a purported certificate of incompetence to Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, making rounds on social media on Sunday.
The purported certificate was issued on April 24, bearing Mr. Kinobe’s signature, describing the House Speaker as dishonourable for shutting down the Attorney General, William Byaruhanga, calling fellow MPs stupid as well as disrespecting court orders and undermining the Judiciary, in the aftermath of the fall out from the UGX 10 billion, allocate to Parliament in the Coronavirus response budget.
Mr. Kinobe has now distanced himself from the damning certificate, taking to his Twitter handle to write;
“Let me use polite language since today is Sunday. The idiot that has the impetus to forge my signature is brave! I will find you”.
The fake certificate followed a statement issued by Uganda Law Society on Parliament’s reaction to a Court Order issued on 24th April 2020 and the subsequent reaction to the opinion of Attorney General, warning MPs against using the UGX. 10 billion as per an earlier court order, pending disposal of main application filed by fellow MP Gerald Karuhanga who is seeking to block parliament from using the allocation.
The ULS in it’s opinion about the clash between Speaker Kadaga and the Attorney General cautioned Parliament that the Judiciary as an institution must be respected — it is one of the three arms of Government and so statements meant to undermine it in any way should be avoided.
The legal fraternity also reminded Parliament that any person aggrieved by the actions of the Legislature, Executive or a private citizen is required by law to refer the said dispute to the Judiciary as a neutral independent arbiter.
Mr. Kinobe in his statement also argued that the Attorney General’s opinion and Parliament’s right to disagree with it should be respected adding:
“However, we urge Parliament to use legally established methods of addressing circumstances where they disagree with such advice. That orders issued by the Courts of law should be respected, they are binding regardless of whether any party finds them unreasonable or otherwise”.
The statement further said; “We continue to advise that, the different arms of government together with the office bearers respect one another. This is important to ensure that the public does not lose confidence in the office bearers or the institutions. We urge all the institutions of government and the office bearers to always respect the Rule of Law,”.
