Hours before news of Judge Lydia Mugambe’s sentencing broke, I checked the website of Oxford Mail, the newspaper that covers Oxford (city) and the wider Oxfordshire (county) for updates.
A brief story confirmed the judge, who was convicted by the Oxford Crown Court in March of forcing a Ugandan woman to work as a slave, would be sentenced. The story stood in contrast to recent local news reports that said the government was exploring ways of getting her freed under a prisoner swap deal.
It is not clear whether there are British nationals in Ugandan prisons, but Daily Monitor, citing Justice minister Nobert Mao, reported on April 17 that Uganda had signed “bilateral statutory instruments” with the United Kingdom, China, Turkey and South Korea to transfer convicted prisoners between the five countries.
If this comes to pass, Mugambe may not spend the six years languishing in a British prison. But the jail term is quite a comedown for a woman who was studying for a PhD in law at the University of Oxford. She was going places and seemed to be living the dream. The UN employed her as one of its judges for the criminal tribunals, and in Uganda she had served as a judge since 2013.
Delivering her conviction in March, the Oxford Crown Court said that Mugambe, 50, took advantage of the young woman’s status by preventing her from holding down steady employment while forcing her to work as her maid.
The Thames Valley Police in Kidlington, where Mugambe lived, said on its website that as a student, she could not sponsor a visa for the woman, so she approached a Ugandan diplomat named John Mugerwa who sponsored the victim’s entry into the UK as a domestic worker.
After Friday’s sentencing, the police said, Mugambe was given a restraining order while the victim, who has lifetime anonymity, was awarded £12,160 (shs59m) in compensation.
The jailing of Mugambe is a sobering reminder that titles, diplomatic passports and privilege do not interfere with justice in jurisdictions that respect the law. In Uganda, power protects. In Britain, at least in this case, it does not.
The conviction and sentencing of Mugambe is in marked contrast to how the criminal justice system in Uganda works, especially when high-profile people are defendants—and this is a great lesson for Ugandans.
In Uganda, it is unthinkable that an ordinary woman can take a judge or a cabinet minister to court and ever get justice. If she did, her major hurdle would begin at the police post/station. Few police officers in Uganda would pluck up the courage to arrest a judge. The judge would simply say: “Do you know who you are arresting?”
That alone would force the police officer to back off. And you cannot blame them. Arresting a judge or a cabinet minister can cost you a job or land you in jail even if you are doing your job. Laws in countries like Uganda tend to punish the poor, not the powerful and rich.
Yet in Mugambe’s case we have seen the exact opposite. Readers of this column may have seen a video that has circulated widely on social media in which a Thames Valley police officer tells Mugambe: “Unfortunately, I am now going to have to arrest you on suspicion of keeping somebody in slavery…”
A shocked and bewildered Mugambe then pleads: “Officer, I am a judge in my country. I even have immunity. I am not a criminal.”
“You’ve got immunity in this country?” the police officer asks.
“Yes, I have a diplomatic passport,” Mugambe replies.
The diplomatic passport did nothing to extricate Mugambe from the legal system, and she has been awaiting conviction, which has received wide coverage by local and international media.
The government has been helpless. Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka vaguely stated, days before the sentencing, that the government was supporting the judge from many perspectives.
And Vincent Waiswa Bagiire, the ministry of Foreign Affairs’ permanent secretary, said: “The ministry is aware and following all events. There isn’t much they can do until after Mugambe’s sentencing. As a country, they cannot interfere with the judicial process of another country.”
The jailing of Mugambe is a sobering reminder that titles, diplomatic passports and privilege do not interfere with justice in jurisdictions that respect the law. In Uganda, power protects. In the UK, at least in this case, it does not.
🔴 Musaazi Namiti is the Founder and Editorial Director of OJ-UGANDA. He previously led the Africa Desk at Al Jazeera in Doha, Qatar, worked for Globe Media Asia in Cambodia and writes a widely read column for Uganda’s Sunday Monitor. His work has been quoted by The New York Times, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Jeune Afrique, The Africa Report—not for playing it safe, but for saying what others will not.
Email: musaazinamiti@ojuganda.com
X: @kazbuk
