BAKAMPA BRIAN BARYAGUMA
MOBILE: +256753124713 / +256772748300;
EMAIL: bakampasenior@gmail.com;
WEB ADDRESS: www.huntedthinker.blogspot.com;
Kampala, Uganda.
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Friday, 13th
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 (20TH 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, 14th 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, 22nd 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, 3rd 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, 20th 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, 12th 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, 2nd 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, 12th 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, 2nd 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, 22nd 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, 23rd 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 20th 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 (20th 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.
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