Legal Briefs/Opinions

 

Crownel Co. has generated legal opinions on the proposed regulation of Church resources and activities, and mandatory theological training for Church ministers; as highlighted by the Religious and Faith based Organisations Policy generated by the Directorate of Ethics and Integrity in Uganda. This policy seeks to establish a mechanism for the regulation of the financial resources of religious entities especially churches and to stipulate the operations of faith-based organisations or entities in various ways including training of spiritual leaders.

Crownel Co. has generated a Statement and legal opinion on the interrogation of Prophet Shepherd Bushiri before the Cultural, Religious and Linguistics Rights Commission in South Africa. This probe followed allegations of negligence on the part of the Enlightened Christian Gathering (ECG) Church (which the Prophet oversees); leading to the demise of 3 members of congregation following a stampede at a Church event organised in Pretoria. Subsequently, additional charges of fraud and money laundering were levied against Prophet Bushiri and Crownel Co. developed a legal brief on the same. In a bid to register our further suppport to the ECG on this case, the Public Relations Officer of this church was contacted.

Additional analyses and opinions were generated on:

The coalition of Political Parties in Uganda: In April 2014, opposition parties decided to partner and unite forces ahead of the 2021 general elections to oust candidates from the ruling party the National Resistance Movement (NRM) from numerous electoral positions. This election strategy was been dubbed “One-to-One” and it was aimed at obtaining a sole opposition candidate at all elective positions in the country. The preparations for this begun as early as 2017 with Nobert Mao of the Democratic Party (DP) and Nandala Mafabi from Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) coming together to mobilize support for a new coalition prior to the 2021 elections. The One-to-One model was spearheaded by the DP and had several other parties like the People’s Development Party (PDP), Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Truth for Justice (TJ) among others already on board and a Memorandum of Understanding intended to settle all the differences within the parties was signed on 5th April 2019. The agenda of the coalition was intended to focus on the presidential, parliamentary and local government positions in order to increase the opposition’s membership in Parliament and to take the lead in the regions it deems it has voters’ strength against one NRM candidate at each level.

Crownel Co. provided an opinion on this coalition and why it was not well suited and prepared for this intervention; highlighting structural and vision challenges such as their lack of a common and sustainable goal, and the imminent effect of reducing the multi-party system to an actual one party or two party system which in turn defeats the purpose of proportional representation as set out in the Constitution; among other things.

The Computer Misuse Act of Uganda and legality of Section 25 of this Act: This followed the arrest and detention of the Watchman – Joseph Kabuleta and his close associate Matsiko Godwin Muhwezi by security operatives; following one of the former’s weekly rants and for which he was charged with use of offensive communication contrary to Section 25 of the Computer Misuse Act 2011.

Crownel Co. further provided legal representation to the above mentioned and further gave an analysis on Section 25 which in our opinion poses a dire threat to enjoyment of the freedom of expression as enshrined in Article 29 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda. Additionally, Crownel Co. gave televised interviews on the legality of the arrests and detention as well as published opinions titled A case study of Joseph Kabuleta’s weekly Rants[1], Social media activities and the law[2], legality of Section 25 of this Act and Annoying the Person of the President and Sedition. We further urged the Uganda Law Society to issue a statement concerning these illegal arrests and detention, and this was eventually done.

The Crownel Co. position was that the content in the rant did not satisfy the ingredients for the offences as highlighted in the Computer Misuse Act of 2011 and which in themselves contravene the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda.

[1]                        https://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1503597/study-joseph-kabuleta-weekly-rants

[2]                        https://nilepost.co.ug/2019/07/16/could-you-social-media-activity-be-contravening-the-computer-misuse-act-2011/