The Uganda Bar Association has directed its members to stop bowing to judges and discontinue the use of colonial-era honorifics in courts.
The directive, which took effect immediately, was contained in an executive order issued on Tuesday and signed by Isaac Ssemakadde, president of the bar.
The order was issued to coincide with Saba Saba Day, which commemorates resistance against authoritarianism in East Africa.
In the statement, the bar association said Uganda’s judiciary is suffering from executive interference, prolonged delays in dispensing justice, judicial corruption, selective justice, and attacks on lawyers.
It also accused the military of undermining judicial independence through unlawful arrests, court invasions, detention of civilians, obstruction of lawyers and journalists, and the trial of civilians before military tribunals.
The association argued that these problems have been sustained by what it described as an outdated colonial court culture that places judicial officers above
