Firebrand lawyer and CEO of Kampala-based human rights watch dog legal brains trust Isaac Ssemakadde has vowed to fight the newly passed computer misuse act which calling the legislation utterly bogus.
Ssemakadde who spoke exclusively to News 24/7 says he and others who have always been fighting what he called anti-democratic laws will rise up this time again to challenge this law too.
“The law is now legitimately ripe for judicial attack and I expect all freedom-loving individuals and organizations to commence legal action against the responsible authorities.”
“Uganda is not short of individuals and organizations that are going to continue the tradition of resistance against this law so resistance against democracy-killing laws like this one is not a novel action. This piece of legislation is going to be just another target of a continuing tradition of legal and social justice lawyering. It is just another day in a decaying democracy.” he said
Whereas he did not disclose the tactics of the legal challenge Ssemakadde said the law is very easy to challenge.
“It is futile to discuss our tactics like this but definitely there will be something. There is something we shall set in motion once this law is gazette.
“I just want to assure Ugandans that it is a simple law to challenge actually, It is utterly bogus and the existing law itself has been under several challenges. Constitutional petition number 1 of 2019 ULS vs Ag.There are several other petitions again based on the old law that are pending judgment”
The human rights lawyer also threw a jab at the judiciary itself faulting the constitutional court for failing to deliver rulings on petitions against the old computer misuse act.
“Those who have done nothing before will continue to do nothing, those who have done something will continue to do something and then the forces of negativity will continue to be forces of negativity and that includes Uganda’s constitutional court and judiciary.”
“The old law was already challenged in the constitutional court and the constitutional court of justice Kavuma is the one which sabotaged action.”
“All heads of the constitutional court have been utterly irresponsible in handling cases in that court, especially concerning computer misuse. I will tell you that there are about 6 cases that have been heard and re-heard about 3 times because the judges failed to deliver the ruling within 60 days. When they get to hear the cases, they don’t deliver rulings within 60 days and something happens either there is a transfer of a judge or a death and instead of offering the ruling or the judgment, parties are called back so there has been a lot of ‘picky ponkey’ around this act.”
The new computer misuse amendment act was fronted by Kampala Central legislator Mohamad Nsereko and a section of the public has taken to social media to protest the president’s signing of the bill into law sighting that it will infringe on their freedom of expression.
Ssemakadde says this law is sinking Uganda further into a decayed democracy.
“I expect that Ugandans are going to see for themselves the decayed nature of the judicial system. It has already been decayed because the act itself is enforced exclusively in Buganda road court. So that is the first level of attack.”
Whereas there are multitudes protesting the computer misuse amendment act, some have celebrated its enactment. Ssemakadde however says no one is safe under this law.
“I want you to understand that there is existing evidence of harm under the old law, harm which has been swept under the carpet.”
“what we now see is that the anti-democratic forces have achieved sophistication. Number 2 the anti-democratic nature of the junta has been revealed for all to see because this is now basic freedom which is easy to understand. There are so many Ugandan elites who have assisted in the delusion that Museveni and his rule has any democratic pretense. Well, now the curtain has been drawn and the regime has fully declared in this law which is a law that is uniquely placed at the lowest common denominator.”
Section 2 of the controversial computer misuse act has been particularly criticized for failing the work of investigative journalists as it prohibits the recording of audio or video without the permission of the person being recorded.
This particular section has been criticized by Journalists as one that fails their cardinal duty of keeping the powerful accountable.
“Ugandan journalists have never been organized against the laws that hurt them. This is because of how journalism is structured in Uganda. It is structured in such a way that the relationship between the media entrepreneur and the journalist is not envisioned within the context of freedom of expression it is envisioned within the context of capital extraction of labor. The journalist thinks he has come to earn a wage and the media entrepreneur thinks they have invested in a business where they should make profits. So there are profits over rights, profit over people, and profit over democracy.”
“Only a few journalists contemplate their lifetime engagement as a constitutional duty, the rest reduce it to matters of bread and butter.”
On the matter of the law itself, Ssemakadde likens it to some of th laws passed during the dictatorial regime of Iddi Amin.
“This law is written in the style of an Amin decree and it is targeting everyone.” Ssemakadde said
The regime has fully exposed its anti-democracy credentials and anyone that had any doubt or is fooled by the existence of the institutions of democracy as the only criteria on which to give the regime a pass on democracy has to account for this.” adding that
“This law is a blunt instrument that will authorize heightened repression, surveillance and militarism. It will provide a cover of legal permission for the most disgraceful forms of surveillance.”
Law or Dressed up repression?
Whereas by the signature of president Museveni, the bill is now a law of Uganda, Ssemakadde says this does not make it right likening it to apartheid in south Africa and colonialism.
“Aperthied was legal, apartheid was a system of laws, just like slavery just like colonialism
“This law just like these systems of government is dressing up repression, surveillance and militarism as the legal tools through which Museveni wants to practice his rule.”
The lawyer now says he is only waiting for the Computer misuse amendment act to be gazetted before launching his legal attack against it.
“Resistance lawyering is not new; this law cannot pass constitutional muster of the constitutional court scheduled it tomorrow.”
“Government is entitled to legislate for peace, order, and development of the country, but when it passes a law it bears the responsibility to ground any law in logic and facts.And this law is not grounded in logic nor is it grounded in facts.”
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on Thursday signed the controversial Computer misuse bill into law.
