KAMPALA, UGANDA: The Judiciary has released the official burial program for the late Court of Appeal Judge, Justice Kenneth Kakuru with the final send-off set for Saturday, March 11, 2023, in Mbarara district.
Justice Kakuru was Tuesday pronounced dead at Aga Khan hospital in Kenya where he had been taken in critical condition after suffering from prostate cancer which was in advanced stages.
According to the judiciary spokesperson, Mr Jamson Karemani, the late Kakuru’s body arrived in Uganda last evening (on Wednesday), and a special court session took place today afternoon (Thursday, March, 9) at the judiciary headquarters in Kampala.
Thereafter, the body will be taken to his home in Buziga for an overnight vigil on Thursday evening.
On Friday (tomorrow), Karemani says there will be a funeral service at All Saints Cathedral, Nakasero at 9 am after which the body will be transported to Rwebishuri, Mbarara for an overnight vigil.
A funeral service will on Saturday be held at St.James Cathedral, Ruharo before the late Justice Kakuru’s body will be laid to rest at his ancestral home at 4 pm.
Background
Born in 1958, the late Justice Kenneth Kakuru held a bachelor’s degree in law and a master’s of law from Makerere University,
He also held a post graduate diploma in legal practice from the Law Development Centre but also a master’s degree in educational policy, planning and development from Kyambogo University.
He also practiced law through his own law firm, Kakuru and Company Advocates.
Kakuru has been a justice of the Court of Appeal since 2013 and it is here that he became famous with his judgements.
One of those was his dissenting judgement in the removal of the age limit cap from the constitution.
In the case, Kakuru was on the only one out of the five judges to rule that removal of age limit was done illegally.
Justice Kakuru who begun by reciting the country’s history right from the ‘reign of terror’ of Idi Amin to the current NRM government quoted President Museveni’s 1986 speech where he promised democratic governance, change in quality of politics, and people power.
In his judgment, Kakuru explained that the MPs consulted very few people, a size which was not representative of the actual number of voters as registered by the Electoral Commission during the previous 2016 elections.
“There was no enough evidence that people of Uganda participated in these amendments. The evidence is too insignificant to constitute a meaningful participation of the people,” he ruled.
“Having said all that, I declare that the entire amendment was unconstitutional and should be declared null and void,” Justice Kakuru ruled before awarding costs to petitioners.
He also ruled that extending the tenure for parliament from five to seven years was illegal because it contravened the provisions of the constitution.
“If we go by what happened, it would mean that parliament would every five years extend its terms without holding an election and this is what Idi Amin did by declaring himself life president and parliament,”Kakuru ruled.
“They can even abolish the judiciary.”
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