Two developments this week underscored the difficulties that Uganda is going through with regard to its observance of the rule of law.

The first was the closure of The Monitor, a sister publication to this newspaper, together with its two related radio stations, KFM and Dembe FM, in connection with a story published in the newspaper about President Yoweri Museveni’s alleged grooming of his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, to succeed him.

The second was a judgment by the East Africa Court of Justice in Arusha declaring that the decision by Uganda to expel Mr. Samuel Mohochi, a well-known Kenyan lawyer and human rights defender, upon his arrival at Entebbe Airport in 2011, without according him the due process of the law was illegal, unlawful and a breach of Uganda’s obligations under the Treaty for the East African Community.

Mr. Mohochi had travelled to Uganda from Kenya in April 2011 as part of a 14-member delegation of the International Commission of Jurists, Kenyan Section, scheduled to meet Ugandan Chief Justice, Benjamin Odoki, with whom they were to take up the case of another human rights defender, Al Amin Kimathi, then detained in Uganda. On arrival at Entebbe International Airport, Mr. Mohochi was not allowed beyond the immigration checkpoint.

He was arrested by immigration authorities, and subsequently served with a “Notice to Return or Convey Prohibited Immigrant”. While the rest of the delegation, with whom he had travelled on the same flight, was allowed into Uganda, he was returned to Kenya the same day. Despite his request for an explanation as to the conduct of the Uganda government, nobody talked to him or offered a reason why he was being excluded from Uganda.

Before the court in Arusha, Uganda argued that as a sovereign state, it had the right to exclude any person that it wished from entering its territory.

In dismissing this argument, however, the court found that Uganda’s sovereignty to deny entry to persons who are citizens of partner states was not taken away by the Treaty and the Protocol, but the exercise of this power can only be valid if it is done in strict compliance with the requirements of the Treaty, which require that the exclusion of nationals of a state party to the Treaty must be notified to that party.

The court reasoned that the limitations on sovereignty, implied by the provisions of the Treaty, into which all East African states entered voluntarily, constitute rights for the citizens of the partner states of the Community.

The expulsion of Mr. Mohochi from Uganda had been preceded by that of a British lawyer, Clara Gutteridge, who was also working on the issue of the Kenyan nationals facing terrorism charges in Uganda. Like Mr. Mohochi, she had also been bundled out when she arrived at the airport, with no explanation being given for this action.

Considered together, these incidents demonstrate that Uganda is experiencing serious setbacks in the observance of the rule of law, making it difficult to predict how its government will behave on a day-to-day basis.

As these occurrences show, Uganda’s internal situation is not without effect on its neighbours, or indeed on the East African Community. Uganda’s arbitrary conduct has implications on the free movement of persons, labour and services, as well as the right of establishment and residence, which are provided for under the Treaty.

As the Nation Media Group must have realized, its investments in Uganda face risks that are peculiar to the unusual political situation in that country. Also, as the longest serving president in the region, President Museveni is the de facto leader of the region whose conduct has implications beyond his own country.

The high-handed behavior coming from Uganda makes it easy for such behavior to be replicated elsewhere.

In this context, the time has come to view Uganda’s growing internal problems not as a domestic matter to be addressed by Ugandans alone, but as an issue that has direct implications on the realization of the objectives of the East African Community and also on the continuing stability of East African region as a whole.

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