Complaint Against Her Worship Esther Nakadama Mubiru and Court Clerk Jolly Kauma for Abuse of Legal/Court Process

BAKAMPA BRIAN BARYAGUMA

MOBILE: +256753124713 / +256772748300;

EMAIL: bakampasenior@gmail.com;

WEB ADDRESS: www.huntedthinker.blogspot.com;

Kampala, Uganda.

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To:

The Secretary,

Judicial Service Commission,

P.O. Box 7679 Kampala.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Re: Complaint Against Her Worship Esther Nakadama Mubiru and Court Clerk Jolly Kauma for Abuse of Legal/Court Process.

The complaint of Bakampa Brian Baryaguma, of +256753124713 or +256772748300 or bakampasenior@gmail.com, dated this 4^th day of December, 2023, states as follows:

I duly filed my complaint with the Judicial Service Commission, as evidenced by their stamp in acknowledgment of receipt of the same. I also served a hard copy of the complaint on the Head of Civil Division, High Court of Uganda and filed a soft copy on ECCMIS, the online portal where all filings related to a case must be filed.

1.                 I am a male, adult, lawyer, resident of Lubaga Divⁿ, in Kampala District.

2.                 I have a case, Miscellaneous Application No. HCT-00-CV-MA-0076-2023, Bakampa Brian Baryaguma v. Law Development Centre (hereinafter “MA No. 76”), in the Civil Division of the High Court at Kampala, before Hon. Justice Wamala Boniface.

3.                 Her Worship Esther Nakadama Mubiru is an Assistant Registrar in that court, while Ms. Jolly Kauma is a Court Clerk in the same court, attached to the chambers of Hon. Justice Wamala Boniface.

4.                 The two judicial officers complained against abused legal/court process in my case (MA No. 76) by forging a court order, purporting it to be issued by the learned trial judge, Hon. Justice Wamala Boniface; thereby engaging in corruption and abuse of office, neglecting their duties and occasioning mal-administration of justice.

5.                 The said court order is contained in a letter of Her Worship Esther Nakadama Mubiru (hereinafter “H.W. Nakadama’s letter”), addressed to me, stating that my application to proceed ex parte and file written submissions in the case cannot be granted as it was denied by the learned trial judge, Justice Wamala Boniface. (A copy of H.W. Nakadama’s letter is hereon attached and marked as “A”)

Here is H.W. Nakadama's letter.

6.                 H.W. Nakadama’s letter was in reply to my earlier letter addressed to the Deputy Registrar of the High Court, Civil Division requesting him or her to cause to be given to me a copy of Hon. Justice Wamala Boniface’s alleged order in MA No. 76, the existence of which I doubted at the time. (A copy of that letter is available online here: https://huntedthinker.blogspot.com/2023/12/request-to-cause-to-be-given-to-me-copy.html) That letter has a background of my case (MA No. 76) and so I need not repeat the background here. I hereby incorporate it in this complaint by reference.

7.                 A hearing of MA No. 76 was conducted by Justice Wamala Boniface, on Monday, 20^th November, 2023, at 10:18 AM, in his chambers, during which he denied existence of the order refusing my application to proceed ex parte and file written submissions: “There was no order as such,” he said.

8.                 It is by and from this statement of Hon. Justice Wamala that I say that Her Worship Esther Nakadama Mubiru and Court Clerk Jolly Kauma abused legal/court process in MA No. 76 by forging a court order, purporting it to be issued by the learned trial judge, Hon. Justice Wamala Boniface, thereby engaging in corruption and abuse of office, neglecting their duties and occasioning mal-administration of justice.

9.                 I am very grateful to Hon. Justice Wamala Boniface for repudiating, disassociating and distancing himself from the forged court order. Thank you very much, my Lord. This is a high degree of personal and judicial integrity.

10.            As a court clerk, Ms. Jolly Kauma is responsible for properly managing (instead of frustrating), court files presented to her until their logical conclusion. Proper management does not include indulging in forgery and deceit, which she so frequently did to me during my numerous follow-ups of my case. Her usual lie was that, “The Judge has not yet responded to your application;” and on a few other occasions that, “The judge is not around.” When it became necessary for her to liaise with the registrar concerning the case, she (Court Clerk Jolly) was obliged to give a true – and only true – state of affairs of the case, but not engaging in more deceptions to her superior as well. She utterly neglected her duties and abused her office, clearly manifesting corruption on her part.

11.            As a registrar (particularly an Assistant Registrar), Her Worship Esther Nakadama Mubiru is responsible for ensuring that all matters that come before her are properly managed, which does not include fabricating and forging things. She was obliged to ensure that the court order she authenticated and communicated to me actually existed on court record and was duly issued by the learned trial judge, but not colluding with her junior to perpetuate falsehoods. Having failed to do that, she utterly neglected her duty and abused her office, clearly manifesting corruption on her part.

12.            Resultantly, Her Worship Esther Nakadama Mubiru and Court Clerk Jolly Kauma occasioned mal-administration of justice in MA No. 76, considering that their illicit actions and inactions have:

(a)              deprived me of my legal right to proceed ex parte in the case, with LDC being presumed to have admitted my case against it, thus lowering my standard of proof;

(b)             delayed justice for me; and

(c)              subjected me to expensive outcomes in form of exorbitant costs of transport, airtime, data, processing documents (including submissions) and wasting my valuable time and energy,

among other anguishes caused to me in prosecuting the case.

13.            Although I am not afraid or worried of proving my case to the required standard in the face of contest, it should be understood, however, that litigation and the administration of justice in general is a process with procedural duties incumbent on parties, the violation of which results in rights accruing to the opposite party. Judicial officers must understand that rights accrued cannot (and should not) be wantonly denied and deprived of their beneficiaries.

14.            I believe Her Worship Esther Nakadama Mubiru and Court Clerk Jolly Kauma are neither mad nor stupid. So this begs the question, who are they working for? The answer is definitely LDC. I have learnt from experience that to challenge LDC is to unsettle deeply vested interests from various quarters. Consequently, LDC is a favourite, a darling of sorts, that is specially given preferential treatment by many actors in the Judiciary (and other government agencies), who shower it with undue advantages over its victimized students. Rules are bent, flexibly applied and even subverted to accommodate LDC, while the same rules are sternly invoked and applied against its complaining students. The bar is lowered for LDC and its people, yet unjustly heightened for its victims like me. That is exactly what is at play here! In my particular case, I remember I was told as much during my student days at LDC by one of my then lecturers, Mr. Tweyanze Lawrence (now judge of the High Court), who told me in open class on Tuesday, 16^th July, 2013, that I would not get favourable judgments in courts since lecturers and judicial officers have networks that will ensure that it is impossible for me to win cases before them when in practise.

15.            An analytical and critical study of the decisions of courts involving LDC and its victimized students shows that there is judicial precedent actualizing Mr. Tweyanze Lawrence’s threats against me and supporting my assessment. The worst decision, in my view, is the ruling of Justice Elubu Michael in the case of Bakampa Brian Baryaguma v. Law Development Centre, Miscellaneous Cause No. 428 of 2019, in which the Judge literally murdered justice and dehumanized me, in order to save the reputations and careers of his friends and allies at LDC. I lodged a complaint against Justice Elubu Michael calling for his investigation and removal from office, a copy of which was served on the Judicial Service Commission on Wednesday, 7^th December, 2022 and is also available online at https://huntedthinker.blogspot.com/2022/12/investigation-and-removal-from-office.html. Students unable to submit to abuse must be crushed and contained!

16.            But really the judiciary should not be used as an instrument and arena of oppression and suppression. Temples of justice should not be facilitators of abuse. So the kind of malpractice exhibited by Her Worship Esther Nakadama Mubiru and Court Clerk Jolly Kauma in MA No. 76 in forging a court order cannot (and should not) be accepted or tolerated in the public/civil service of Uganda. In the words of scripture, they did what they were not supposed to do and did not do what they were supposed to do and there is no truth in them. I request the Judicial Service Commission to punish and hold them accountable.

17.            I would have served copies of this complaint to Her Worship Esther Nakadama Mubiru and Court Clerk Jolly Kauma, but I realize that under your (JSC’s) enabling laws, it is the Commission that is required to do that by calling upon those complained against to reply and defend themselves. I do not want to hijack and do your job. I trust that JSC will not shy away from doing its role.

18.            By copy of this letter, however, the Head, Civil Division, High Court of Uganda is alerted and informed of occurrences of abuse of legal/court process by officers in his division so that he may do whatever is in his power and/or mandate to do in order to stop or prevent such further abuse.

19.            Stated at Kampala on the date first hereinbefore mentioned.

 

…………………………………………

Bakampa Brian Baryaguma

Complainant/Litigant

Mobile: +256753124713 / +256772748300;

Email: bakampasenior@gmail.com.

 

Copy to:     Head, Civil Division, High Court of Uganda.

Request to Cause to be Given to Me a Copy of the Trial Judge’s Alleged Order in My Case vide Miscellaneous Application No. HCT-00-CV-MA-0076-2023, Bakampa Brian Baryaguma v. Law Development Centre, Which is Before Justice Wamala Boniface

 BAKAMPA BRIAN BARYAGUMA

MOBILE: +256753124713 / +256772748300;

EMAIL: bakampasenior@gmail.com;

WEB ADDRESS: www.huntedthinker.blogspot.com;

Kampala, Uganda.

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Friday, 13^th October, 2023.

To:

The Deputy Registrar,

Civil Division, High Court of Uganda,

Kampala, Uganda.

Your Worship,

Re: Request to Cause to be Given to Me a Copy of the Trial Judge’s Alleged Order in My Case vide Miscellaneous Application No. HCT-00-CV-MA-0076-2023, Bakampa Brian Baryaguma v. Law Development Centre, Which is Before Justice Wamala Boniface.

The above matter refers.

Thank you for your good service to the Judiciary and our country, at large.

I HUMBLY REQUEST YOU TO CAUSE TO BE GIVEN TO ME A COPY OF HON. JUSTICE WAMALA BONIFACE’S ALLEGED ORDER THAT I SHOULD APPLY TO FILE WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS IN MY CASE, MISCELLANEOUS APPLICATION NO. HCT-00-CV-MA-0076-2023, BAKAMPA BRIAN BARYAGUMA V. LAW DEVELOPMENT CENTRE, ON THE DAY OF THE NEXT HEARING (20^TH NOVEMBER 2023), AS TOLD TO ME BY THE LEARNED JUDGE’S CLERK, WHO, I THINK, IS CALLED JOLLY.

I served this letter on LDC's retained advocates as can be seen from their stamp at the top left corner of the document acknowledging receipt of it. The court registrar was served the document by filing it on ECCMIS, which is the newly introduced online portal where all filing related to the case is done. In effect, therefore, the Uganda Judiciary has phased out physical stamping of documents. That is why there is no stamp of the Judiciary in this extract acknowledging receipt.

Briefly, the background to my request to you is as follows:–

1.                  On Tuesday, 14^th February, 2023, I filed in this court the above mentioned application, a copy of which I duly served on LDC’s retained advocates i.e. M/S Kyagaba & Otatiina Advocates (also t/a Dentons). The application involves matters of illegality, fraud and professional misconduct committed by the advocates. LDC did not file a reply within the prescribed time.

2.                  On Saturday, 22^nd April, 2023, I wrote to Justice Wamala requesting him to allow me proceed ex parte and make oral submissions at the earliest available time. No reply was given. Then, on Monday, 3^rd July, 2023, I once more wrote to the learned Judge, again requesting him to allow me proceed ex parte, but file written submissions this time. No reply was given as well.

I duly filed both letters on ECCMIS and brought them to the attention of the learned Judge’s clerk, Jolly (sic), so that they are presented to him promptly. Unfortunately, Justice Wamala has never responded to my requests. Instead, the application keeps getting adjourned, with the latest adjournment being slated for Monday, 20^th November, 2023, at 10:00 a.m.

Meanwhile, I repeatedly checked on Court Clerk Jolly (sic) to find out if the Judge granted my applications. Every time I went there and stated the purpose of my coming, she would walk into the Judge’s inner chamber – his personal office – and come out after about two minutes later with a more or less standard reply: “The Judge has not yet responded to your application.”

3.                  After getting tired of these fruitless follow-ups, on Tuesday, 12^th September, 2023, I wrote to the Head of this Division, requesting him to intervene in my case by calling upon his brother judge, Justice Wamala Boniface, to dispose of my written requests to him to proceed ex parte and file written submissions. That letter was copied to Justice Wamala. I did not receive a reply to my letter.

4.                  On Monday, 2^nd October, 2023, I went to check with Justice Wamala’s clerk, Jolly (sic), to find out if the learned Judge granted my application to file written submissions. She again walked into the Judge’s chamber, from which she came out in the same usual time of roughly two minutes. This time round though, she checked in all her office cabinets looking for my case file. Failing to find it, she suggested that I make my request on the day when the case comes again for hearing. But I told her that the danger is that on that day, the Judge may still not be around for whatever reason and then the case gets adjourned again to another date, possibly next year, 2024. She asked me to tell her the citation of the case. Fortunately, I had an affidavit of service with me so I gave it to her to crosscheck the case number and parties, which she did and again checked in the office cabinets. She didn’t find the file and instead undertook to put it before Justice Wamala. “I think I shall put the file before the Judge,” she told me.

5.                  This conduct and undertaking seemed suspicious to me and caused me to think that this woman has never presented my applications to the Trial Judge and is just playing/duping me. For example, for all the time I went to her, what was she looking for all along and confirming as not yet responded to by Justice Wamala, yet she ostensibly didn’t know the citation of the case? Funny; not so?

6.                  On Thursday, 12^th October, 2023 (yesterday), I again went to find out from Court Clerk Jolly (sic) if Justice Wamala granted my application to file written submissions. She told me that the Judge said that I make my application on the day of the next hearing (remember this was her suggestion to me on Monday, 2^nd October, 2023). When I asked her for a copy of the Judge’s order, she looked surprised by my request and said that, “The Judge just said like that to me. He didn’t write anywhere.” I thanked her and left.

Now, Your Worship, I wonder why a serious judge (of which I believe Justice Boniface Wamala is) can just verbally reply to a written application to him. Honestly speaking, it baffles my mind. But like I said, I suspect that Court Clerk Jolly (sic) may have never given my applications to Justice Wamala and is just playing/duping me. I recall that when this case first came up for hearing on Monday, 22^nd May, 2023, at 11:00 a.m., Court Clerk Jolly (sic) claimed that she doesn’t know the case and that she didn’t have it in her diary; yet she is the one who allocated to me that hearing date and authorized issuance of a hearing notice after crosschecking in her very diary. She referred us (LDC’s advocates and I) to the registrar for further instructions. When His Worship Jamson Karemani (as he was then) asked her what she meant by not knowing the case yet it is clear on ECCMIS that it is before ‘her’ judge, she said, somewhat contradictorily, that the judge isn’t around to hear the case.

I think only LDC’s retained advocates (M/S Kyagaba & Otatiina Advocates (also t/a Dentons)) who are accused of committing illegality, fraud and professional misconduct, their client (LDC) whose bill of costs is on the verge of being quashed, and whoever they may be conniving with, stand to gain from this case – Miscellaneous Application No. HCT-00-CV-MA-0076-2023, Bakampa Brian Baryaguma v. Law Development Centre – not progressing to the next level. So far, due to these unprincipled and suspicious delays, LDC has been able to file on court record an affidavit in reply exactly six (6) months after service of summons on it (on Wednesday, 23^rd August, 2023, at 10:57 a.m.), without seeking leave or permission of court! A more or less similar trick was played on me in the cause (Miscellaneous Cause No. 428 of 2019, Bakampa Brian Baryaguma v. Law Development Centre) from which this application ultimately arises, when LDC failed to file a defence within the prescribed time and only did so belatedly after a friendly and allied judge (Justice Elubu Michael) took over the case and handed them dubious victory. Fortunately for me in the instant application, I have lined up a string of preliminary objections that I believe will, if tried by an impartial and fair judge, undoubtedly cause the ejectment out of the court record of LDC’s late and unauthorized affidavit in reply.

Otherwise, pleadings in the application have been closed and the learned Trial Judge, Justice Wamala Boniface, already has all the evidence with him attached to affidavits. Why wouldn’t he want to see the expeditious disposal of the case, instead of keeping it pending unnecessarily in the court system? Can it be that he simply wants to look at us (parties to the case) come 20^th November 2023? I doubt. For what good reason?

It is amidst these and more uncertainties, that I humbly request Your Worship’s intervention by causing a copy of the order alleged by Court Clerk Jolly (sic) to have been made by Justice Wamala Boniface that I should apply to file written submissions in my case vide Miscellaneous Application No. HCT-00-CV-MA-0076-2023, Bakampa Brian Baryaguma v. Law Development Centre, on the day of the next hearing (20^th November 2023), to be availed to me. I can be called to pick the order when it is ready or, better still, it can be posted on ECCMIS where all of us, parties to the case, can access it.

If that order doesn’t exist – like I strongly believe it doesn’t – then I further request Your Worship to use your good office and intervene by causing my application to file written submissions to be presented to the learned Trial Judge, Justice Boniface Wamala, so that the case progresses to the next level instead of remaining virtually and unnecessarily idle in the court system, for almost one year now.

I hope my requests will be put under Your Worship’s consideration.

Thank you very much, in advance,

 

……………………………………………

Bakampa Brian Baryaguma

Applicant

Mobile: +256753124713 / +256772748300;

Email: bakampasenior@gmail.com.

 

cc:       1. Hon. Justice Boniface Wamala

            2. M/S Kyagaba & Otatiina Advocates (also t/a Dentons)

After receiving my letter, I got this reply from the Court. This is a symbolic victory for me because it fulfills my recommendations in my letters in this matter. One, I suggested that judicial officers engage in meaningful correspondence with litigants and their lawyers, which has been done here; and two, I suggested that written applications to a judge be responded to in writing - not just verbally - which has also been done here. I hope this becomes standard procedure in all our courts and not just a one-off to, perhaps, an insistent litigant i.e. me.