KAMPALA: A growing ideological rift within Uganda’s legal fraternity has spilled into the open after Uganda Law Society (ULS) President Isaac Ssemakadde publicly severed ties with lawyer Elison Karuhanga, accusing him of abandoning the Society’s principles at a critical moment for the rule of law.
The public fallout, revealed in an open letter released on Sunday, follows months of disagreement over the Uganda Law Society’s political direction and was heightened by Mr Ssemakadde’s criticism of Mr Karuhanga’s silence following the reported arrest of senior lawyer Erias Lukwago.
In the letter addressed to members of the Radical New Bar (RNB), Mr Ssemakadde said he regretted previously supporting Mr Karuhanga’s bid for a seat on the Judicial Service Commission (JSC).
“I disassociate completely. I was wrong to associate with Elison Karuhanga,” Mr Ssemakadde wrote.
The latest dispute marks a dramatic shift in the relationship between the two lawyers, who had previously maintained mutual professional respect despite differing perspectives on governance and legal reform.
Mr Ssemakadde said he initially viewed Mr Karuhanga as a lawyer capable of bridging divisions within the legal profession and had supported his candidature for the Seventh Judicial Service Commission.
However, their relationship deteriorated after the Radical New Bar adopted Executive Order No. 6 of 2025, declaring that the Uganda Law Society would no longer maintain political neutrality in what it described as an era of constitutional decline and militarised politics.
Mr Karuhanga publicly opposed the directive, arguing in an opinion article that the Law Society, as a statutory professional body representing lawyers with different political beliefs, should remain institutionally neutral.
Mr Ssemakadde said that disagreement exposed fundamental differences in their outlook on the legal profession.
“There is no neutrality in a militarized state,” he wrote, defending the Radical New Bar’s position.
He also claimed that he and Mr Karuhanga last spoke on December 26, 2025, during a telephone conversation in which Mr Karuhanga allegedly disclosed that he was under pressure from unnamed individuals to distance himself from the Radical New Bar.
According to Mr Ssemakadde, his decision to publicly cut ties was ultimately prompted by what he described as Mr Karuhanga’s silence following the reported arrest of Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago on June 15.
He argued that lawyers have a constitutional obligation to speak out when fellow advocates face alleged violations of their rights and said silence weakens the profession’s commitment to defending the rule of law.
Mr Ssemakadde also criticised lawyers whom he accused of maintaining close ties with political power while presenting themselves as defenders of constitutionalism.
The dispute has exposed widening divisions within Uganda’s legal fraternity over the role of the Uganda Law Society, the meaning of institutional neutrality and how lawyers should respond to governance and human rights concerns.
By Monday morning, Mr Karuhanga had not publicly responded to Mr Ssemakadde’s latest remarks.