“The Judiciary Laid Down Their Tools”

Upon our return to Kampala, we read some disturbing news in The Monitor, one of the local papers. That Thursday afternoon, for second time in two years, police officers surrounded the High Court to rearrest prisoners who had been released on bail. There was a confrontation between the judicial officers and advocates and the police, resulting in injuries to one defense counsel and one police officer. While the government and the judiciary have presented widely differing accounts of the incident, the judges have announced that they will go on strike -- the first time since independence -- until they receive an apology from the executive branch. As of today, the executive has stated that the incident was regrettable, but has not apologized. Protests are expected during the week. We are currently in Kenya, but watching the local papers carefully; in fact, we have written a letter to the editor, supporting the judiciary in its attempt to abide by the rule of law, but so far it has not been published.