By Spy Uganda
Uganda Law Society President Isaac Ssemakadde, writing from exile, has issued a blistering warning over the appointment of Dr. Flavian Zeija as Chief Justice, describing it as a looming calamity that threatens to finally break Uganda’s Judiciary.
In a hard-hitting statement, Ssemakadde argues that President Yoweri Museveni’s decision to elevate Zeija represents not reform, but the formal burial of judicial independence. He contends that the rushed and opaque approval process — quietly sanitized through Parliament — exemplifies how constitutional safeguards have been hollowed out to entrench executive control over the courts.
According to Ssemakadde, Zeija’s judicial career is defined less by fidelity to the law and more by administrative manipulation in service of political and economic power. His tenure as Principal Judge and later Deputy Chief Justice, he says, was marked by repeated interference in live cases and the use of bureaucratic authority to override trial judges.
He cites the Imaniraguha v Uganda Revenue Authority matter, where Zeija allegedly directed the withdrawal of a valid court warrant, prompting a rare and public rebuke from Justice Stephen Mubiru. Similar patterns, Ssemakadde notes, emerged in Plinth Construction v Attorney General and the Mufti Mubajje case, where files were removed mid-hearing, derailing proceedings to preserve entrenched interests.
The exiled ULS president places particular emphasis on Zeija’s role in the 2025 removal of four critical Uganda Law Society appeals from the Court of Appeal cause list. Those appeals, he explains, were central to ending sustained judicial harassment of the ULS leadership and enabling the election of ULS representatives to the Judicial Service Commission as required by Article 146 of the Constitution.
Despite their urgency and constitutional significance, the appeals were discarded on what Ssemakadde describes as legally indefensible grounds, in direct conflict with established appellate guidance in Security Group v Marie Stopes.
He further accuses Zeija, while presiding over the Constitutional Court, of deliberately blocking an emergency application seeking to suspend judicial appointments until the Judicial Service Commission was lawfully constituted. The same application also sought to halt JSC operations pending resolution of Constitutional Petition No. 12 of 2025, which challenges the legality of the Judicial Service Commission Regulations 2025.
The fallout, Ssemakadde argues, was predictable and self-serving. Judicial appointments continued behind closed doors, including the elevation of Jane Frances Abodo as Principal Judge and ultimately Zeija himself as Chief Justice — all without a fully constituted JSC. He describes this sequence as a glaring conflict of interest, where Zeija declined to stop a process that later rewarded him personally.
Ssemakadde recalls that both the Uganda Law Society and the East Africa Law Society formally condemned Zeija’s conduct last year, warning that such actions would corrode the rule of law. Yet complaints persist, he says, from lawyers and judges who accuse Zeija of deference to “orders from above,” conduct that offends international standards on judicial independence and Uganda’s own Code of Judicial Conduct.
He also points to Zeija’s remarks at the 3rd East African Judicial Conference in Kigali, where the judge reportedly dismissed legal practitioners while discussing mediation and alternative dispute resolution — remarks Ssemakadde says exposed deep contempt for the legal profession and an inability to build functional bar-bench relations.
In Ssemakadde’s assessment, installing Zeija as Chief Justice risks institutionalizing delay, corruption, political interference, and internal conflict within the Judiciary, further eroding public trust and transforming justice into a privilege of the powerful.
From exile, the ULS president insists scrutiny will not relent. He says lawyers will continue documenting misconduct, mobilizing whistleblowers, and preparing coordinated resistance, including possible boycotts of court proceedings.
“This appointment is not just a mistake,” Ssemakadde warns. “It is a calamity for the Judiciary — and the country will pay the price.” 
