Uganda Law Society (ULS) President Isaac Ssemakadde has sharply criticised lawyer Elison Karuhanga for failing to speak out after the reported abduction of senior advocate Erias Lukwago, exposing deep divisions within the country’s legal fraternity.
In an address to lawyers, Ssemakadde said Lukwago was seized from his home on June 15 by armed personnel linked to the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF), describing the incident as a direct assault on the rule of law.
“Selective muteness in the face of tyranny is not neutrality; it is complicity dressed in procedural robes,” Ssemakadde stated.
He accused Karuhanga, who once branded himself “The Lawyer’s Lawyer,” of abandoning the profession at a critical moment.
According to Ssemakadde, the silence from a senior member of the Bar raised questions about the commitment of some lawyers to defend constitutionalism.
“The man who called himself ‘The Lawyer’s Lawyer’ no longer speaks for this Bar. His silence screams loud,” he said.
The ULS president framed the dispute as part of a wider ideological divide over whether lawyers should remain neutral in politically sensitive cases.
He said the ULS had already taken a position against neutrality under its “Radical New Bar” agenda.
“There is no neutrality in a militarised state,” Ssemakadde added. “Our duty is to the wananchi, to the rule of law, and to the Republic.”
He further revealed that efforts to maintain unity within the Bar had collapsed months earlier, after Karuhanga reportedly distanced himself from the ULS’s direction and called for a neutral professional stance.
Ssemakadde also criticised what he described as growing links between some lawyers and state power, warning that such proximity risks weakening the independence of the legal profession.
He referenced commentary by Muhoozi Kainerugaba in the aftermath of Lukwago’s alleged abduction.
“Power in Uganda is not a conversation between equals. It is the gun versus the law,” he said.
Karuhanga has not publicly responded to the accusations.