By Witness Radio team,
Lawyers representing a local community facing illegal land eviction from Ranch 22 in Kiryandongo district have written to the Kiryandongo chief magistrate, urging her to recuse herself from presiding over any criminal or civil cases involving their clients over impartiality issues.
In a two-paged letter received by the Kiryandongo chief Magistrate court from Arinaitwe Peter and Company Advocates, the legal representatives of the affected communities documented instances where the trial magistrate exhibited bias during the legal proceedings. The lawyers firmly believe that the behavior of a trial magistrate throughout the proceedings demonstrated bias, posing a potential threat to the fairness of the judicial process and impeding the path to justice.
One of the incidents revolves around a criminal case, Uganda versus Kanunu Innocent & 9 Others, where the accused are charged with three counts of threatening violence. During the cross-examination, the evictees’ lawyer reportedly faced hostility from the trial magistrate whose behavior is alleged to have created an atmosphere that was detrimental to the accused individuals’ right to a fair trial, fundamental right that hinges on the assurance of a neutral and unbiased judicial environment.
In Uganda, commercial ranches were established during the 1960s and early 1970s in areas that had been cleared of tsetse-fly infestation, however, due to civil strifes, these investments collapsed. At that time, many people were fleeing war tone areas, entered and started occupying ranch lands. Later in 1990s, government allowed settlers to legalize their interests on the land. A local community that was occupying ranch 22 in Bunyoro sub region is among those that benefitted from the scheme and granted a certificate of land ownership by government of Uganda. In a short period, these locals were conned, and their land title was allegedly transferred to individual names before selling to Somdiam Limited, company owned by India nationals.
According to Witness Radio – Uganda researches, Somdiam Company Limited was incorporated in Uganda in 2011, deals in imports of assorted food commodities including rice, sugar, vegetable cooking oil, biscuits, salt, tomato paste, powdered milk, pasta & spaghetti.
The 809.3713 hectares lawfully occupied by over 3000 residents on Nyamuntende, Ndoi, and Kikukungulu villages are being grabbed for large-scale sugar plantation.
For some time now, Somdiam and its agents have been involved in forced land eviction activities without a court order or offering alternative settlement. The same company has hired Kiryandongo district police to carryout arbitrary arrests and detention, and several outspoken community land rights defenders have been aligned before court on trumped-up charges and sent to jail.
The letter further mentions another matter of an application for an interim order of injunction vide Misc. Application No, 08 of 2023; Kalisa Joseph & 7 Others versus Somdiam Ltd & 3 others where they (lawyers) were surprised when the trial magistrate allowed them to submit orally and present evidence, but she (magistrate) chose to deliver the ruling on another date.
“Consequently, we prayed that our submissions for an application for temporary injunction vide KDGO 00 — LD-MA-007 of 2023; Kalisa Joseph & 7 Ors versus Somdiam Ltd & 3 Ors be adopted and subsequently filed 05/ submissions in rejoinder to strengthen our case.” The letter reads in part.
In her ruling delivered in the absence of lawyers for the community, the letter states that the trial magistrate seemingly favored the respondent’s submissions without properly considering their (advocates) evidence on the matter and failed to conduct a locus visit to verify facts from both parties contradicted Paragraph 3 of Practice Direction No. 1 of 2007.
According to the lawyers, the ruling of her Worship, Lucy Kabahuma has resulted in extensive devastation to communities’ gardens and homes, increased arrests, threats, and increased pressure on communities to vacate their land.
“In light of the aforementioned instances of apparent and actual bias, we believe it is essential to uphold the principles of justice and maintain public trust in the judiciary. For this reason, we respectfully request that you recuse yourself from all matters involving our clients to ensure a fair and impartial judicial process.” The letter ended.
