Luo Federal Rally

14 March 2007. Kampala High Court. Over 700 lawyers, dressed in white shirts and black suits, gathered in silence. They had been on strike for three days. Now they were here to perform an ancient ritual of purification. At the front, a lawyer held aloft a blood‑stained shirt, evidence of what the state had done in this very building two weeks earlier. The Cleansing of the Court - 2007 The procession, led by Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki and Uganda Law Society President Oscar John Kihika, circled the court building in a symbolic cleansing ceremony. Kihika described it as an "age‑old African ritual designed to purify the court." The bloodied shirt and tie belonged to Kiyemba Mutale, a lawyer who had been beaten unconscious during a government raid on the High Court on 1 March. That day, armed security forces from the "Black Mamba" anti‑terrorism unit had stormed the criminal registry to re‑arrest nine treason suspects who had just been granted bail after 15 months in detention. During the hours‑long standoff, Mutale was attacked. The suspects were beaten, bundled into a police vehicle, and taken away. The raid was a grim echo of November 2005, when the same unit had laid siege to the High Court to prevent the release of the same men during Kizza Besigye's presidential campaign. The 2007 attack triggered an unprecedented response. On 5 March, Uganda's judges went on a week‑long strike to protest the assault on judicial independence. On 12 March, the Uganda Law Society began its own three‑day sit‑down strike, demanding an apology and concrete reforms. Five ULS members who held high‑level government positions were suspended. Justice James Ogoola captured the gravity: "The point had to be made. They will not survive unless the rule of law, independence of the judiciary and all other fundamental principles that hold the nation together are back to form." President Museveni eventually expressed regret for the incident and promised a "legal and transparent modus operandi" for future arrests. The judges and lawyers returned to work. But the ceremony on 14 March was more than a conclusion, it was a declaration. Mutale's bloodied shirt, held high before the committee tasked with investigating the raid, was not just evidence. It was a symbol that the judiciary would not be cowed. The cleansing was not merely ritual. It was a line drawn in the dust of a courtroom, a reminder that even in the face of armed men, the law could still speak. #ughistory #ULS @ug_lawsociety @Lawpointuganda @JudiciaryUG