By: Isaac Christopher Lubogo
When Hon. Dr. Justice Fredrick Egonda-Ntende rose to deliver the inaugural Sam Kalega Njuba Memorial Lecture, he did not thunder or rage. He spoke as a judge must speak—measured, careful, restrained. But those who listened closely heard more than a lecture. They heard a code. A mirror. A cry.
His invocation of George Washington—the general who surrendered command, the president who refused a third term—was not a history lesson. It was a dagger of truth wrapped in judicial courtesy. Washington proved that leadership is not about immortality in office, but about restraint and sacrifice. And by telling that story, Hon. Justice Egonda-Ntende was asking Uganda in 2025: Where is our Washington?
Uganda today lives in a state of constitutional betrayal. The 1995 Constitution, which Njuba helped craft, was written with term limits, age caps, and civilian control of the army—guardrails to prevent a president from becoming a king and a general from becoming a monarch. Yet those guardrails have been hacked away. Term limits scrapped. Age caps erased. Civilians dragged before military courts. A Parliament swollen beyond 550 members. Districts multiplying like a patronage lottery while hospitals run out of drugs and schools collapse under overcrowding.
This is not constitutional evolution—it is constitutional cannibalism. A nation eating the very document meant to protect it.
And yet, Hon. Justice Egonda-Ntende did not despair. He pointed to the last frontier: civil society. If politicians have captured the Constitution for their survival, then lawyers, doctors, teachers, engineers, farmers, traders, and professional associations must reclaim it for the people. Renewal will not begin at State House—it will begin in the civic square, in the chambers of the Uganda Law Society, in the voices of professionals who refuse to let betrayal be the last chapter.
This is the crossroads:
Betrayal or Renewal.
Constitution as weapon of the powerful, or shield of the powerless.
A future stolen by amendments, or a future reclaimed by courage.
Hon. Justice Egonda-Ntende’s lecture was not simply an academic exercise. It was Njuba speaking through him, reminding Uganda that betrayal is never permanent. Renewal waits at the edge of courage.
The question now is not whether Uganda can be renewed. The question is whether Ugandans will rise to claim it. For Njuba’s dream still flickers in the ashes. And if we dare, it can burn bright again.
