Retired Supreme Court Judge Joseph Nyamihana Mulenga is dead.
Erias Kisawuzi, the Judiciary spokesperson has confirmed the retired judge succumbed to cancer but declined to divulge further details.
A statement from the family says Justice Mulenga, who served as a Supreme Court Judge in Uganda for 12 years until his retirement in 2009, died on Wednesday at Nakasero Hospital, where he was being treated for cancer-related complications.
He has been a serving Judge of the African Court on Human and People’s Rights, which he joined for a term of six years from 2008.
While serving on the Supreme Court, he was appointed to the East African Court of Justice in 2001 for a term of seven years, initially as Vice President of the Court, and subsequently as President of the Court.
His career in the judiciary spanned 47 years, as Prosecutor with the Department of Public Prosecutions, Senior State Attorney, and Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Republic of Uganda.
Justice Mulenga also served as Minister of Regional Cooperation, and also held various positions of responsibility in the legal fraternity including President of the Uganda Law Society for five terms, Member of the Judicial Service Commission, Chairman of the Law Council Disciplinary Committee, Vice Chairman of the African Bar Association, and Africa Regional Representative on the Commonwealth Legal Bureau.
Justice Mulenga was active in politics even as a student, and in 1983 was elected to the position of Deputy National Chairman of the Democratic Party, and was also a Member of the Constituent Assembly that made the 1995 Constitution.
He attended Mutolere and Sooko for his primary education. For his Junior, Senior and Higher Secondary education, he went St. Mary’s College - Rushoroza in Kabale, St. Leo’s College – Kyegobe in Fort-Portal and St. Mary’s College - Kisubi. He obtained his Higher School Certificate in 1960. He undertook his legal education in the United Kingdom, where he graduated with Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) degree of London University in 1965 and was called to the English Bar as Barrister-at-Law by the Middle Temple in 1966.
Mulenga later worked for some years as a private legal practitioner with Kampala Associated Advocates. Justice Mulenga also served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General.
In 2004, he was on the bench when the Supreme Court quashed Section 50 of the Penal Code.
The landmark ruling related to the Constitutional Appeal No 2 of 2002 filed by Charles Onyango-Obbo and Andrew Mujuni Mwenda against the Attorney General. The two journalists’ then working for the Monitor Newspaper had been dragged to court on charges of publishing false news. The case stemmed from a September 1997 story in the Monitor saying that then DR Congo President Laurent Desire Kabila had paid Uganda in Gold for her contribution to dislodge Mubutu Sese Seko in May of that year.
Mulenga famously ruled that the protection of the right to freedom of expression is of great significance to democracy…and the bedrock of democratic governance.
He was also twice on the bench when the Supreme Court heard two presidential elections petitions seeking to nullify President Yoweri Museveni's victory in 2001 and 2006. The petitions were filed by opposition leader Dr Kiiza Besigye, who cited voter bribery and other electoral malpractices. In the two petitions, the court ruled 3:2 and 4:3 respectively in favour of Museveni.
In 2008, Justice Mulenga, then still on the bench at the Supreme Court, was at the centre of controversy after another judge, Justice George Kanyeihamba, said that government had declined to renew his term at the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in favour of Mulenga.
Kanyeihamba, also a retired Supreme Court Judge, claimed that foreign affairs ministry officials had conspired with Justice Mulenga to frustrate his candidature. The officials mentioned included Minister Sam Kutesa and Permanent Secretary Ambassador James Mugume.
In February 2009, Mulenga gave an interview to the The Independent in what was his very last day in office as a Supreme Court Judge. In the interview, he said the most shocking incident he would remember about his years in the judiciary was the 2007 invasion of the High Court by the armed men of the Black Mamba.
He was an active member of the Rotary Movement and an avid Golfer.
