Kampala, Uganda: The Uganda Law Society (ULS) has announced a boycott of the Opening of the New Law Year 2026, escalating a deepening standoff between the legal profession and the Judiciary over what the Bar describes as systematic exclusion, intimidation and suppression of dissent.
In a formal protest letter dated February 3, 2026, addressed to the Judiciary, through Acting Chief Registrar Pamella Lamunu Ocaya, the ULS said neither the Society nor its members will attend the ceremony scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday, February 5, 2026, after the Judiciary allegedly sidelined the Bar from the official programme.
The Society’s Vice President, Anthony Asiimwe, noted that while some lawyers were invited in their individual capacities, the ULS as an institution received no formal invitation and was denied an opportunity to address the gathering.
“Regrettably, no formal invitation was extended to the ULS as an institution. Moreover, a review of the published programme reveals that no opportunity has been afforded to the ULS leadership to address the gathering,” Asiimwe wrote, describing the omission as a deliberate affront to the constitutional role of the Bar.
The Society said the exclusion mirrors events during the 2025 New Law Year opening, where ULS President Isaac Kimaze Ssemakadde, SC, was listed on the programme but was denied the opportunity to speak before later facing disciplinary and criminal sanctions over his dissenting views.
“This omission is particularly concerning as it mirrors the tyrannical and oppressive treatment accorded to the Society at last year’s ceremony,” the letter reads. “The repeated and apparently intentional exclusion of the representative body of the legal profession from meaningful participation in these proceedings is a matter of grave disquiet.”
Under Ssemakadde’s leadership, the ULS has repeatedly clashed with the Judiciary over issues of judicial accountability, contempt proceedings, free expression and what the Society characterises as abuse of judicial power.
The confrontations have resulted in several boycotts of Judiciary-related events, including ceremonial sittings and engagements organised without formal ULS participation.
The Bar warned that continued exclusion of lawyers’ leadership from constitutional ceremonies threatens the balance between the Bench and the Bar, which it described as “two indispensable pillars of the administration of justice.”
“Such a totalitarian practice, if permitted to become normalised, risks undermining public trust that the proper functioning of the justice system requires,” Asiimwe stated.
The ULS revealed that it attempted to resolve the matter amicably, with its leadership seeking clarification from the Chief Registrar’s office regarding its participation in the ceremony, but received no response.
“In the circumstances, and having regard to the seriousness of the exclusion and the Judiciary’s prevailing antipathy to dissent, the ULS Council has resolved that neither the Society nor its members will participate in or attend the Opening of the New Law Year ceremonies,” the statement declared.
The Society said it could not accept being reduced to what it termed a “passive observer” at a constitutionally significant event where the voice of the legal profession ought to be heard.
“The Radical New Bar cannot properly be relegated to the role of passive observer at an event of such constitutional and professional significance,” Asiimwe wrote, adding that the decision to boycott was taken with regret.
The boycott comes amid heightened tensions following recent arrests, contempt proceedings and criminal charges involving lawyers critical of judicial officers, further entrenching what observers describe as the most strained relationship between the Bench and the Bar in recent history.
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