The Ugandan Law Council has finally granted Martha Karua a temporary practice certificate that will allow her to represent detained Opposition politician Kizza Besigye.
Veteran Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye sits in the dock at the courtroom where he was charged with inciting violence during a protest against soaring consumer prices, in Kampala, Uganda May 25, 2022. REUTERS/Abubaker Lubowa/File Photo
Karua received the certificate on Monday after she re-applied through the Uganda Law Society.
“The Law Council has granted a temporary Practicing Certificate to Hon. Martha Karua, following her reapplication through the Uganda Law Society, as directed by our #RadicalNewBar President, Isaac Ssemakadde,” the Ugandan Law Society said in a statement.
This comes about four weeks after she was denied a practice license by the Ugandan Law Council.
Karua is the lead counsel in Kizza Besigye’s case following his alleged abduction in Kenya and was later on court-martialled in Uganda, alongside his friend Obeid Lutale.
Karua said the Ugandan Law Council declined her application in a letter dated December 6, 2024, because copies of her practising certificate and letter of good standing from the Law Society of Kenya were not notarized.
She further said the council told her that her nationality documents and academic qualifications were not attached to her application, as well as that of Erias Lukwago, another lawyer representing Besigye.
Newly elected president of the East Africa Law Society Ramadhan Abubakar protested the decision by Uganda’s law council saying it ran afoul of the spirit of the East African Community that aims at progressive integration.
He said that it also erodes the gains that have been made in pursuing cross border practice of advocates.
“This arbitrary decision undermines the spirit of regional integration as provided for under the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community and erodes gains made towards actualizing cross-border legal practice in the East African region,” he said.
Abubakar said the move also put into sharp focus the willingness of EAC Partner States to fully implement the Common Market Protocol that guarantees the free movement of people, goods, services and capital in the East African Community Under Article 126 of the treaty that establishes the East African Community and Article 11 of the Protocol that establishes the EAC Common Market.