Maverick city lawyer Isaac Ssemakadde confirmed that the decision to stand for the position of the Uganda Law Society (ULS) was taken after meeting senior respected lawyers who convinced him that he is the only person who can fiercely fight for Rule of Law in the Country.

Ssemakadde revealed that the said senior lawyers summoned him when he was in Kampala filing a public interest case after spending months as a fugitive running away from security agencies who wanted to arrest him on criminal charges.

Highly placed sources close to Ssemakadde reveales that his attempted arrest resulted from a warrant of arrest issued against him by Gladys Kamasanyu the head of the Utilities, Standards and Wildlife Chief Magistrate Court.

Ssemakadde’s lawyers led by the Constitutional law giant Derrick Bazekuketta tried to frustrate his arrest because the judiciary leadership and members of the legal practice all had conflicting interest in his arrest.

Ssemakadde decided to go into hiding in Eastern Uganda.

Sources disclosed that on several occasions, detectives from different security agencies stormed his law chambers along Bombo Road in Kampala city and turned his office properties up-side down searching for the man from Mbulire Bigasa in Bukomansimbi district in vain.

Ssemakadde told reporters at Mengo Bulange that because he had all the qualifications to stand for ULS top office, he accepted the pleas for him to contest and publicly declared his interest knowing very well that he was going to face a lot of resistance from judiciary leadership.

He added that he was very glad that ULS stood its ground and nominated him.

theGrapevine, an investigative news website has established that Ssemakadde’s vibe during the ULS campaigns took his enemies by surprise given that the men in suits who seat in ACs and give orders were very sure that lawyers were not going to support him because of his personal character and appearance.

” Keneth Kipalu’s withdrawal from the race was a last hour calculation to frustrate Ssemakadde’s win.

“State Attorneys both in the Attorney General’s Chambers and in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution were mobilized to make sure that they vote, they even paid their annual membership fee because you know those people who working for the government are not paying their membership fees in ULS,” a source said.

According to highly placed sources within the Attorney General’s chambers, they realised that Ssemakadde’s ULS presidency was against him because he was running his campaign using his name and he was informed that there are forces behind him.

Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka tried to also put up a spirited fight because he is known as a fighter especially when it comes to law and politics.

theGrapevine has established from judiciary insiders that many lawyers voted for Ssemakadde because they think that he is the only one who has the guts to tell off Kiryowa Kiwanuka and judicial officers who are feared in the legal fraternity and control the entire system.

These lawyers are of the view that Ssemakadde will help them to break the circle of law firms which are chosen without merit to benefit from government deals.

This judiciary insider added that even if the small law firms win court cases, they have to use those lawyers from big special law firms to chase for their money from the government as compensation which in turn take a big share of the said money as commission.

One of the senior lawyer told theGrapevine in the course of investigating this story that they invest a lot in prosecuting cases against government that involve compensation because many times the people they represent don’t have money.

He added that they have to even facilitate them to come to court to attend court proceedings including giving evidence but after winning their cases, they have also to look for those special lawyers to secure for them their money from the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.

He added that some times these big lawyers who pick the money from government take the lions Share and for them, even though they prosecuted the case and spent a lot on it, are left with bones.

He gave the example of the billions late Bob Kasango ate when senior counsel David Matovu asked him to get for him his clients money from government since he was blacklisted for being Dr Kizza Besigye’s lawyer and could not get business or deals from president Museveni’s government.

Other lawyers are bitter with the conditions put in place by the Attorney General Kiwanuka when it comes to compensating people who have won court cases.

Kiryowa issued a directive that the money should be paid to the individual who won the case not the lawyers.

Many lawyers claim that such an arrangement gives their clients opportunity to eat their share even when the donkey work was done by the lawyer.

However sources in the Attorney General’s chambers said that Kiryowa was followinf President Museveni’s guidance after the President received several complaints from different people that their lawyers have been eating the money that government pays them as compensation.

Recently, senior lawyer Dr Sam Mayanja a founding partner at Kampala Associated Advocates (KAA) also revealed that he has received information that there are people who are intimidating judges on cases in which they have interests threatening them that they will loss their jobs if they don’t rule in their favour.

He explained that it is the reason why in this country there are people who cannot lose court cases, since they use impunity to oppress the poor and disadvantaged persons.

Another lawyer told us that to win a case, a lawyer has to approach such powerful lawyers who have the power to threaten judicial officers and control the system.

Lawyers allege that this is an arrangement made to make sure that small law firms don’t develop until they secure connections with powerful lawyers who always give them small deals and cases.

This reporter also established that there are ongoing fights between top city law firms thet are accusing Kiwanuka of using his position of being close to president Museveni to secure deals for his law firm K&K Advocates and law firms of his friends hence side lining others.

It is alleged this fight started during the 2021 presidential election petition filed by National Unity Platform (NUP) presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu(Bobi Wine) at the Supreme Court against president Museveni.

Sources claim that there are law firms which always benefit from presidential election.

petitions and are very sure to present president Museveni among them is Kampala Associated Advocates(KAA) and Byenkya Kihika and Company Advocates and Tumusiime Kabega and Company Advocates was representing the Independent Electoral Commission.

Sources added that since the National Resistance Movement (NRM) is the ruling government political party, after elections, president Museveni the chairperson of the party always designates huge sums money to facilitate the legal team that is going to defend his party members against the opposition.

theGrapevine has established that the ULS elections not only attracted practicing lawyers who were supposed to cast their votes but also the public who were morale boosters through social media and other media platforms.

Sources alleged that among the people who supported Ssemakadde are top city tycoons who have issues with lawyers who are controlling the legal fraternity, especially the judiciary and they wanted Ssemakadde to correct such abodomalities.

By Sengooba Alirabaki

Alex Waiswa Mufumbiro, the National Unity Platform (NUP) has confirmed that his party president Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) has heavily invested in spying on the former Leader of Opposition Mathias Mpuuga Nsamba to know his next move.

“One of our top priorities in running this political struggle against ‘dictator’ Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is spying and it has helped us so much to get intelligence information from our enemies within us and outside our political party, so that’s why we have politically and physically survived up to this time,” Mufumbiro said.

He boasted that because of the huge amount of money invested in spying, they managed to secure photos in 2021 immediately after filing a presidential election petition in the Supreme Court against the victory of president Museveni when he was meeting the Chief Justice Owiny Dollo and other top judicial officers who were going to preside over their petition.

Mufumbiro added that it is this evidence that they used to withdraw their petition and they decided to take the matter to the public court since they were sure that they were not going to get any justice from the Dollo led Supreme Court.

He added that spying also helped them to establish the political relationship between president Museveni through Annet Anita Among the speaker of parliament and their former Leader of Opposition In Parliament Mathious Mpuuga Nsamba.

Mufumbiro revealed that because of their high level intelligence network, they have managed to secure classified information exposing Mpuuga’s next political move with president Museveni’s trusted political handlers and members of the DP block against Bobi Wine and the entire NUP fraternity.

He alleged that president Museveni has already invested more than Shs5bn in the said political move to weaken Bobi Wine so that he can badly defeat him come 2026.

Mufumbiro said that Mpuuga and his team are concluding the process of registering a political party which they are going to unleash before 2026 general elections together with a number of top long term opposition politicians.

Mufumbiro further claimed that their spies have already told them that plans to launch a political party named People Power Front (PPF) are in offing and the leaders of this party chose this name to confuse Bobi Wine’s support base especially the youth and a lot of money is going to be used to compromise them to change their support to Mpuuga’s PPF.

Mufumbiro confirmed that a number of opposition members of parliament on the NUP ticket are going to cross and join Mpuuga and as NUP leadership, they have already started looking for their replacements before 2025.

Mufumbiro accused Samuel Lubega Mukaku and DP Bloc leadership of spearheading the drive to weaken Bobi Wine and the entire NUP party using Museveni money.

He divulged that part of the money was used to rent a big office in Lubaga Division which they plan to use to coordinate their activities.

“ We are very prepared to faceoff with Mpuuga and his team, we know his constitutional amendments proposals and those of Richard Lumu are facilitated by Museveni and they plan to use them as a weapon to weaken the person of Bobi Wine which will never happen, for that I assure the entire world,” Mufumbiro vowed.

He made the statements few hours after Democratic Party leadership led by Ismail Kiirya the party spokesperson exclusively told theGrapevine that DP Bloc is bad news to opposition unity come 2026 and they are set to take legal action against them for using their party properties including slogans, colours and songs in their political activities.

However when contacted, Mukaku laughed at Mufumbiro boasting that he knows very well why he and his boss Bobi Wine are scared of their political activism as DP Bloc because they understand their capacity in political strategy and mobilization.

“ Mufumbiro knows who made Bobi Wine, true we are bad news to them because they are political mafias, fraudulently misleading the struggle against Museveni for their personal enrichment, we shall side line them and execute our political mission of liberating Ugandans,” Mukaku said.

He denied allegation of receiving money from Museveni to rent an office which they allegedly plan to use to coordinate their political activities and battle Bobi Wine.

He added that he has had a big polished office since 2006 which he has been using for political activities.

Mukaku further denied allegations that they are planning to form a political party which they want to use as a political vehicle come 2026.

He noted that they have more that enough registered political parties which they are cooperating with and political pressure groups like People Power, so they don’t need to form another political party because they don’t even have time to do so.

Mukaku further laughed at DP leadership who are accuses them of stealing their properties.

He boasted that they are ready to face them in court since they have all the evidence including authorisation from late Dr Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere to use the DP properties.

Mukaku assured Bobi Wine and his team that Mpuuga is bigger than them all and advised them to look for him and apologise to him for the wrongs they did to him otherwise they are going to perish like other politicians who use politics for personal benefits.

By Sengooba Alirabaki

Buganda Kingdom Premier Charles Peter Mayiga has revealed why Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi missed the celebrations to mark his 25 years in marriage to Queen Sylivia Naginda Luswata the Nnaabagereka of Buganda.

In an exclusive interview with Adam Kungu of Sanyuka television, Mayiga was tasked to explain why Kabaka missed such an important event yet his subject continue seeing him touring his Kingdom privately.

During the celebrations to mark 50 years in marriage for Joyce Nabbosa Ssebugwawo and her husband at the end of August 2024, Nagginda revealed that she was also going to celebrate 25 years in marriage to Kabaka Mutebi and boasted of how members of her own Omusu clan are good at marriage.

She asked all unmarried people to look for women and men of her clan.

However, even though Naginda publicly announced her wedding anniversary celebrations, there was no photo seen of the couple celebrating and allegations started making rounds that the two cannot celebrate because of the misunderstandings they developed over Naginda’s book titled “The Nnabagereka: Queen Sylivia Naginda Luswata”.

At the launch of the book in 2022 at Sheraton Hotel, Kabaka Mutebi, many members of the Royal family and the Mengo administration officials boycotted the event.

Sources disclosed then that it was an order from Kabaka Mutebi himself because he was not happy with some of the content in the book.

The Kingdom contested some of the content in the book especially the Queen’s twins.

The Kingdom even came out and cleared the air saying that the Kabaka is not a Salongo with twins through Kasujju Lubinga, a Buganda Kingdom Chief who is responsible for all Buganda royal members.

On the issue of missing the wedding anniversary celebrations, Mayiga explained that Kabaka might have missed because he is strictly following his medical doctor’s advice that is why he no longer attends both private and public functions.

He explained that as per now, the king is no longer allowed to attend Kingdom duties including reading several reports and currently all the work is done by him.

He added that it means a lot for Kabaka to attend a ceremony but he noted that the Kabaka might have celebrated the anniversary privately with his wife without public knowledge.

 By Hadijjah Namagembe