Justice Nestor Kayobera , the President of East African Court of justice has described Uganda as one of the few East African countries with high quality lawyers who have easied the work of this regional court.
At the closure of the two days training session for Advocates on good governance and rule of law in the East African Community, Kayobera noted that most Ugandan lawyers appear in court well prepared which ease the judge’s work although at times there some who tend to misbehave.
“Gimara should come back to Uganda and train more lawyers because if even in court when we have a good lawyer we can feel them i e When Gimara is in court we can feel, when the Attorney General and the team appear before us , we can feel that we are interacting with people who understand the law.” said Kayobera
The judge President commended Uganda’s Attorney General , Kiryowa Kiwanuka for having led a team of Attorneys from his chambers to physically appear before EACJ In Arusha in May this year. “It is a clear sign that the Republic of Uganda has trust in the East African Court of Justice.”
However , the Judge President raised concern that there are some few lawyers who tend to act unprofessionally wherever they appear in the regional court thus painting a negative picture to the practice.
“We are trying to discipline some lawyers from Uganda , who think that they can write any rubbish to the court and insulting judges. What you can’t do in Uganda, don’t do it in Arusha.”
He added that in consultation with the Ugandan Attorney General, they ressolved that such characters should never file again any case in this court untill further notice. “With this concluded training, I know very many of the participants have acquired knowledge on rules of this court and this will help them to effectively defend their clients.
Senior Counsel the Director for programmes at Centre for Public Interet Law (CEPIL), in his remarks , urged all the beneficiaries of the training to go out in the Public and preach the gospel about rule of law and good governance.
“This training used to accommodate 20 participants but due to the overwhelming number applicants and public outcry we decided to increase the number to 40. We could have trained more but it wasn’t possible due to resource constraints.”
Gimara further promised to work hand in hand with their partners to organize a special training for Lawyers in the Attorney General’s chambers because they are always the respondents in all matters before East African court where Uganda Government is listed as the respondents.
About the training
The two day training commenced on Tuesday 4th July 2023 and closed on 6th July 2023 at Protea Hotel Kampala.
It attracted Lawyers from various law firms in the country.
These were taken through the rules of procedure at EACJ and later received each a resource book of Good governance and rule of law in East Africa which contains all authorities on good governance as far EACJ’s jurisprudence is concerned. The second document is the litigator’s manual.
