Hon. Dr Sam Mayanja

Attorney General of the Republic of Uganda.

[Elison Karuhanga @elisonk]

There are lawyers who practice law. There are lawyers who shape institutions. And then there are lawyers whose careers become intertwined with the great public questions of their time.

Hon. Sam Mayanja belongs firmly in the latter category.

His journey has taken him through private practice, politics, public service and reform. He helped form and build one of Uganda's most successful law firms. He entered public life. He stepped into one of the most contested arenas of governance, land. And this week he assumes office as the principal legal adviser to the Government of the Republic of Uganda.

It is a remarkable office. Few public offices sit as naturally at the intersection of all three arms of government. As a minister, the Attorney General is part of the Executive. As the First Parliamentary Counsel, he oversees the legal architecture through which government policy is translated into legislation and presented before Parliament. And as an Advocate of the courts of Uganda, he remains an officer of the court, owing duties not merely to a client, but to the administration of justice itself. In many respects, the Attorney General is the constitutional thread that runs through the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary.

It is also an office with a distinguished lineage. Across the decades, it has been occupied by some of Uganda's most accomplished lawyers, jurists, politicians and statesmen. Among its holders have been Godfrey Lukongwa Binaisa, who would later become President of Uganda; Godfrey Lule; Nkambo Mugerwa; Abu Mayanja; Sam Kutesa; Francis Ayume; Joseph Mulenga; Prof. George Kanyeihamba; Rt. Hon. Amama Mbabazi; Hon. Fred Ruhindi SC; Justice Bart Katureebe; Peter Nyombi; Khiddu Makubuya; William Byaruhanga; and most recently Hon. Kiryowa Kiwanuka. Their careers would go on to shape courts, governments, constitutions and the nation itself. Few offices in Uganda can claim such a roll call.

Now the brief passes to Hon. Sam Mayanja.

Every Attorney General inherits a mandate. But each must decide what to do with it.

What should be the relationship between government and the legal profession? How should the state approach litigation? How do we tackle judicial backlog? How do we strengthen confidence in our institutions? How do we reconcile development with the rule of law? And what role should law play in Uganda's future?

These are not merely legal questions. They are national questions.

Join us this Wednesday as we welcome the Learned Attorney General of the Republic of Uganda, Hon. Sam Mayanja Senior Counsel, for a conversation about the office he now inherits, the mission he intends to pursue, and the legal and constitutional questions that will help shape Uganda's future.

The Attorney General's Brief: The Mandate and the Mission.

[Kenneth Muhangi @xcenneth]

The Protection of Sovereignty Bill is before Parliament. Its stated concern, foreign interference in government policy, foreign aid that carries influence, and the use of online platforms to spread misinformation, is a concern worth addressing. The legal problem is that the Bill goes well beyond that concern.

The Bill defines "foreigner" to include Ugandan citizens residing outside Uganda, and then adds a further category of any person, institution or body whom the Minister may declare to be a foreigner by statutory instrument. That is not regulation. It is re-description. It takes belonging, which the Constitution has already settled, and places it within reach of ordinary legislation and ministerial discretion.

Not just a drafting concern, this is a question about what kind of economy Uganda is building and for whom.
Clauses 25 and 26 place banks and payment providers inside the Bill's enforcement structure, requiring them to determine who qualifies as an agent of a foreigner before releasing funds. In practice, banks respond to that kind of legal uncertainty by escalating documentation requirements and delaying transactions. The cost lands on the Ugandan woman in Dubai sending money home. On the startup receiving working capital from a parent company abroad. On the climate project structured the way carbon markets must be structured to function.

FITSPA, ISPAU, ADEC-U, and CMAU each represent sectors whose capital architecture is cross-border by necessity. Uganda Communications Commission data shows 45.7 million active mobile subscriptions and 35.6 million mobile money subscriptions as of Q3 2025. These are not marginal sectors. They are the economy's operating layer.

Sovereignty located in the people, as Article 1 requires, means preserving the conditions under which people can work, transact, invest and organize. A Bill that burdens those conditions beyond what is constitutionally necessary does not protect sovereignty. It narrows it. Parliament should be pressed to answer not only what this Bill prevents, but what it replaces, and who bears the cost while it waits for an answer.

The full paper is linked below. https://t.co/W7Nk5VGyTF

@kta_law

[Elison Karuhanga @elisonk]

There are lawyers who practise. And then there are lawyers who shape the terrain on which everyone else must practise.

This Wednesday at 7pm, JSC Conversations hosts Kabiito Karamagi, a man whose career sits at the fault line between law, business, and power.

For nearly two decades, Kabiito has been at the centre of Uganda’s most complex corporate disputes. He has led creditor enforcement battles for major financial institutions, stepped into distressed companies at the moment of collapse, and helped design the very legal frameworks that govern insolvency in this country. When businesses fail, when debt overwhelms, when deals unravel, his is often the name called.

But that is only part of the story.
He is also a seasoned courtroom advocate who has taken on high-stakes regulatory disputes and major infrastructure battles. And beyond the cases, he has built a firm. Not just a practice, but a brand. The kind of institution that signals credibility before a word is spoken in court.

Our conversation, When Billions Are on the Line: Bad Business, Insolvency, and the Making of a Legal Empire, is about what happens at that intersection. Where litigation meets money. Where insolvency meets strategy. Where the outcome is not just a judgment, but the survival or collapse of entire enterprises.

Because when the pressure rises, it is not the textbooks that decide. It is the lawyer in the room.
Join us this Wednesday at 7pm.

[Ivan Rugambwa🇺🇬 @I_Rugambwa]

Picked up an MBA over the weekend, with two of the most important women in my life as witnesses .

Mum (in frame 2) never thought she would live to witness my Bachelors. This weekend,she boarded a plane for her very 1st time to witness my Masters, the 6th degree by her own kids🙏🏽

[Elison Karuhanga @elisonk]

Thank you, @MetaAloroE for an inspiring session last night. Your depth, clarity, and commitment to excellence remind us why strong mentorship matters. The future of our profession is brighter because of educators and practitioners like you. 🙏🏾

[Elison Karuhanga @elisonk]

Our guest this Wednesday is @Dr_KatjaK . She stands at the confluence of justice and diplomacy. As Head of the Austrian Embassy @ADCinUganda in Uganda, she has quietly shaped one of the most consistent and credible partnerships in our justice sector.

A lawyer by training, a linguist by discipline, and a reformer by conviction, she has walked the corridors of our @JLOSUganda sector carrying with her one constant belief, that justice is the truest form of development.

She holds three Master’s degrees and a Ph.D. in Comparative Constitutional Law. But her finest education, she would tell you, has come from years of listening to judges in Gulu, to magistrates in Kabale, and to the quiet determination of men and women who believe in the rule of law even when it bends under pressure.

Dr. Kerschbaumer has seen our justice system not as an abstraction, but as a living institution one that can and frequently does stumble, yet rise again with purpose and reform.

In her, we find the rare diplomat who does not merely fund programmes, but nurtures institutions; who does not dictate terms, but builds trust; who believes that when justice thrives, peace endures. And we have many questions for her.
Questions that seek to learn how cooperation can build courts, how diplomacy can nurture trust, and how nations can meet not as donor and recipient, but as partners in the rule of law.

For in every age, justice has needed its champions and diplomacy, its believers.

This Wednesday, Dr. Katja Kerschbaumer joins us as both.

[Elison Karuhanga @elisonk]

https://t.co/UROhN4OnjW

[Elison Karuhanga @elisonk]

This Wednesday, 3rd September at 7PM, we honour a legacy that binds Uganda’s past to her future.

We recall Sam Kalega Njuba; politician, patriot, and Minister of Constitutional Affairs when the 1995 Constitution was born. At his side in life, and still at the service of her country, stands Major (Rtd) Gertrude Norah Nanyunja Njuba. Born in 1944, daughter of a Bishop, wife, mother of twelve, freedom fighter in the resistance, and today a Senior Presidential Advisor she has walked every stage of Uganda’s struggle and service.

In this conversation, she will speak not as an observer of history, but as one who helped make it. Her testimony is living memory of sacrifice, conviction, and the cost of building a nation under law.

She is joined by Afra Audrey Apio, Head of Rule of Law at the Uganda Law Society, as we mark 15 years since Rule of Law Week first began. Together they will remind us that the Constitution was not an accident of text, but the product of lives risked, battles fought, and a tradition that must endure.

Join us on X Space, TikTok, and YouTube. Let us listen, learn, and resolve that the flame of the rule of law lit by those who came before-shall not go out in our time.

#MissionBasedJudges #RuleOfLaw #Uganda

[KAA (Kampala Associated Advocates) @KAAdvocates]

We extend our heartfelt thanks to @RUBiSEnergyUG1 outgoing Country Manager Olivier Gatera for his years of visionary leadership and impactful service. Wishing you every success in the next chapter of your career.

We also warmly congratulate the new Country Manager as you assume the role. looking forward to continued collaboration under your leadership

[Kenneth Muhangi @xcenneth]

As the African proverb reminds us: “When the leader forgets the path, even those who follow in good faith will be lost.”

I ask this of my fellow Advocates at the Uganda Law Society, our Council colleagues, and especially our Vice President, Mr. Anthony Asiimwe, What is true #accountability?

How can we, who are called to defend the rule of law, allow ourselves to appear to hide behind legal technicalities when it comes to the governance of our own Society?

The recent High Court ruling in Mugisha Hashim Mugisha v Uganda Law Society & 7 Others (Misc. Cause No. 263 of 2024, High Court of Uganda, 14 February 2025) was clear. It did not suspend or outlaw elections. It only quashed one illegal notice issued by an improperly constituted Council.

If Council continues to meet, approve payments, and transact ULS business, then surely it cannot claim incapacity when it comes to elections. To say “we can run meetings and finances, but not elections” is inconsistent with the principles of accountability and #democracy that guide us as advocates.

Section 9 of the Uganda Law Society Act provides that the President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, and Council members must be elected annually by the membership in a general meeting. The #Elections Regulations (2016) remain in force. Neither the Act nor the Court’s ruling provides justification to defer elections.

As members and as colleagues elected to Council, we must do what is right.

The @ug_lawsociety belongs to all of us. Its strength lies in respecting the law, not bending it for convenience. Members of ULS are watching, and the country is watching.

My appeal is simple and personal, let the rule of law prevail, let elections be held, and let us, together, safeguard the integrity of our Society.

[Elison Karuhanga @elisonk]

Good morning colleagues,

This morning, I rise in gratitude.

Though I could not be there to host the space with SC Henry Kunya I am deeply moved by the strength and spirit with which the conversation was held.

To @NicholasOpiyo15 @MuyaakaAlfred @MakabayiMercie @IamTheSparrow @raynersimmons who stood in the gap and carried the mantle: I thank you. You did not merely hold a discussion you raised a standard. You reminded us all that the pursuit of justice is not paused by absence, nor dimmed by distance.

You gathered not for ceremony, but for cause. And in that gathering, you gave voice, strength and light to those still climbing the hill of justice.

From the depths of my heart, thank you :-),

[Thomas Tayebwa @Thomas_Tayebwa]

Ruhinda North, here we come.

[Elison Karuhanga @elisonk]

It was, for all of us, a great pleasure and an abiding privilege to listen to and converse with the learned Hon. Dr. Justice Bamwine, Principal Judge emeritus.

He spoke as a true steward of justice ought to speak with candor, with fervor, and with unwavering clarity. His words rang not as mere opinion, but as the distilled wisdom of one who has walked long in the halls of judgment, weighed the cause of man against the scales of law, and stood always for fairness.

The recording of this exchange is here. I beseech you, listen to it.
Not for entertainment, but for enlightenment.
Not to pass the hour, but to understand the age.

[Chemutai 💗 @MakabayiMercie]

It was a great pleasure co-hosting the @JSConversations with my colleagues @MuyaakaAlfred @elisonk and @qataharraymond . Today we hosted Hon. Justice Yorokamu Bamwine and we were indeed honored to learn from
His wealth of knowledge and experience.