Uganda Law Society Hosts 2nd Sam Kalega Njuba Memorial Lecture

Date: September 24th 2026 Venue: Plot 5A1 John Babiiha Avenue, Kampala The Guest of Honour Rtd. Justice Dr. Esther Kitimbo Kisakye, the President of Uganda Law Society Senior Counsel Isaac Ssemakadde, distingushed guests, members of Uganda Law Society (ULS), ladies and gentlemen. It is an honour for me to be a keynote speaker at the 2nd annual Sam Kalega Njuba Memorial Lecture. An honour because I am not a distinguished scholar, researcher or even a contemporary of this distinguished lawyer, freedom fighter, politician and statesman. The only connection I have with him is that because of the accident of history we met, worked together and I replaced him as MP for Kyadondo East in 2011. Njuba was the Secretary of the NRM external wing which was based in Nairobi in the 1980s. His contemporaries are the late Eriya Kategaya, late Kirunda Kivejinja, Hon. Mathew Rukikaire, Hon. John Patrick Amama Mbabazi, late Dr. Sulaiman Kiggundu, Gen. Yoweri Museveni, Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda, Prof. Yusuf Lule or people like Dr. Kizza Besigye that he recruited into the “Struggle against dictatorship. Thank you ULS President and the entire leadership for this opportunity. At the time of his death in 2013, about 13 years ago, Hon. Njuba was the Chairman of Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) and I was the party’s Secretary for Information and Communication. This is the first time that I got to work with him directly. I had before joining politics and FDC in 2010, interacted with him generally during my journalism work at Daily Monitor. I first saw late Njuba in the early 90s when he visited my school, Masaka Secondary. He visited regurally to check on students he was educating, many not his biological children. He used to carry with him pilawo in a burnt saucepan (black saucepan). He would park near the main gate and direct his children and us their friends to carry our black saucepan to the hostel. He would tease the children “you are here bragging over girls that you are children of a minister, carry that black saucepan so girls can see you.” Masaka SS is a mixed school and from the main gate to the boys hostel is about 300 metres. And we were passing by the girls’ hostel who were always in the window shouting at us. You know that age. Njuba who served as justice and constitutional affairs minister in the first NRM government (1986-94) is part of the crop that treated public office as a duty and service. Many in the first NRM cabinet didn’t see or treat their appointments as a privilege but an opportunity to serve humanity. That is why many of them served with intergrity, high levels of accountability an transparency. The Njubas were made to buy their ministerial vehicles (black Nissan Laurel) and to mantain and to fuel them. They hired and paid their drivers. Those were the standards that distinguished the new NRM ministers from their predecessors. Those were the NRM standards that have since been abandoned. Today ministers are distinguished by the make and size of their limousine and the numbers in a convoy. This Financial Year (2026/27), Uganda’s budget is Shs 84.3 trillion. Nearly half of it (Shs 36.9 trillion) will be financed through borrowing because taxes and other revenue sources will contribute just about Shs 47 trillion. And because we have debts that are due this financial year, we are going to spend Shs 33.6 trillion which is 40% of the budget on debt servicing. There is an ongoing investigation to find out how $14 million (Shs 51 billion) meant for debt service was allegedly diverted into private accounts overseas. Even what they allocate for debt servicing is stolen. Faced with a task of being ministers in an impoverished country, the Njubas bought, maintained and fueled their vehicles. In this Budget that we will finance by borrowing, we have provided Shs 161 billion to buy vehicles for new MPs, Shs 236 billion to buy vehicles for ministers and other senior government officials. Fuelling vehicles for ministers and senior government offi