Children’s song helps convict rapist father
A popular action song, widely taught to children in Kenya and elsewhere to help protect them from sexual predation, has played a key role in detecting the rape of a four-year-old by her own father and in the father’s subsequent conviction and sentence. Giving her...
Ritual killings, legal loophole on death penalty laws in Zimbabwe
A recent decision by Zimbabwe’s supreme court illustrates, yet again, the problem of ritual killings – murders in the name of witchcraft – and how the courts should deal with them. But this particular case, in addition to being one of the most tragic and gruesome that...
Appeal court insists on transparency from judges, probity from counsel
Uganda’s appeal court has delivered a major decision that insists essential legal principles must be observed by both the courts themselves and by practitioners who appear in the courts. The three appeal judges effectively censored a legal practitioner as well as a...
Ugandan law students wrestle with real-life human rights issues
Determined – and brave – staff at Uganda’s Makerere University law school have done it again: they have incorporated a current ‘hot’ Ugandan human rights issue into an examination written last week. While it is common practice in many countries for exam questions to...
Eswatini’s law society boss accused of undermining court’s integrity
Prominent Eswatini lawyer, Mangaliso Magagula, faces a personal D-Day: he has been charged with contempt of court by high court judge Titus Mlangeni who said the evidence indicated, on the face of it, that Magagula had committed contempt by undermining the integrity...
Valentine’s Day, but not much legal love in Uganda
Tensions continue to build in Uganda, where the government and the army are still ignoring the supreme court judgment of more than two weeks ago. This landmark decision nullifies trials of civilians in military courts, ordering that all civilians still on trial before...
Crisis edges closer as Museveni slams Ugandan apex court’s decision
A constitutional crisis looms in Uganda where President Yoweri Museveni has slammed last week’s watershed judgment by the country’s highest court. The judges found that courts martial had no jurisdiction over civilians and that all such trials had to stop immediately....
Major new decision by Eswatini’s highest court affirms human rights, democratic principles
In an extraordinary judgment, the highest court in Eswatini has come out strongly supporting human rights and against the kingdom’s police chief. The stance taken by the supreme court in this decision is almost unheard of in that country, particularly in the way that...
Triple headache for Uganda’s legal, human rights sectors
Legal and human rights circles in Uganda have been roiled by no fewer than three troubling developments in the last week. Over the weekend, the secretary of the Uganda Law Society purported to expel both the organisation’s newly-elected president, Isaac Ssemakadde,...
Uganda’s constitutional court petitioned over AG’s ‘judicial interference’
Uganda’s legal system is embroiled in yet another controversy over alleged political interference in judicial independence. This time, an official of the Attorney-General’s office wrote to the principal judge (roughly equivalent to a divisional judge president in...