Upon advice of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and approval by Parliament, President Museveni on 29th July 2026 proclaimed the appointment of Lady Justice Bukirwa Faridah Shamilah, to substantively serve as Judge of the High Court. She had been among those originally appointed to serve as acting Judges for two years and thereafter get confirmed.
Justice Bukirwa was unable to be confirmed with members of her cohort of pioneer acting Judges largely because of the controversial matter involving the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) leadership which she handled while serving at the Jinja High Court. Members of the Old Kampala-based Muslim faction were unhappy with her rulings and handling of the case and mobilized haters who caused her to be subjected to an inquiry of some sort by the JSC.
Gratefully, at the end of the inquiry she was cleared as no proof of wrongdoing or even professional misconduct could be established. The JSC recommended her reinstatement, a move that was subsequently ratified by Parliament after concerned members of the bar and other stakeholders mounted pressure while disputing the circumstances under which an innocent judicial officer had had to be sanctioned for merely diligently doing her work.
Bukirwa was called back to the bench and posted to serve as the Resident Judge at Luweero High Court, an arrangement that came to a halt earlier this year following the expiry of the mandatory two years of probationary service as acting Judge. The President has since mitigated the uncertainty that had resulted by substantively appointing Bukirwa to now serve as a substantive High Court Judge, a privilege she had previously been unfairly deprived of.
News of the President’s Wednesday 29th July proclamation (earlier this week) went viral on social media, a platform lawyers and other court users used to celebrate the fact that the right thing had finally been done. While referencing her down-to-earth approach, people-centeredness and the prudence with which she always approached work, many saluted President Museveni for finally doing the right thing.
Lawyers from Jinja and Luweero, where Bukirwa has served before, unanimously welcomed the same as long overdue. In a country where belligerent exchanges between bar members and the executive have become norm, this was one of those rare moments when executive action attracted unanimous approval from private lawyers and generally members of the bar. “This has been one of the few things government has done right,” remarked one Jinja lawyer contributing to an online conversation about Bukirwa’s latest validation.
Another asserted: “Well deserved. It has been long overdue [because] Her Lordship is in class of her own. An appointment well deserved. Congs to her indeed.” Another lawyer from Luweero asserted that the promptness, sense of duty and integrity with which Bukirwa approaches her judicial duties combined to make the latest Presidential proclamation inevitable. It’s now up to the judiciary leadership (basically the Principal Judge, Chief Justice and the rest to work out the relevant operational details) to get Justice Bukirwa resume judicial service to her country.
BRIEF PROFILE: Available online information shows that Bukirwa was first appointed acting Judge in September 2022. Previously, she had served as Principal Legal Officer for National Council for Higher Education (NCHE). She worked at NCHE’s legal department for 12 years (2010-2022). Besides frequenting court to litigate on Council matters, Bukirwa participated in the evolution of several pieces of legislation including the process to amend the Universities & Other Tertiary Institutions Act.
NCHE is charged with regulating higher education matters in Uganda, which includes enforcement of corporate governance adherence. For the 12 years, PLO Bukirwa was thickly involved in all that while at the Council’s legal department. She also has a history in Uganda Law Society where her legal peers recall her role on the ULS’s Rule of Law Committee.
NCHE’s legal department also leads on the relevant subsidiary legislation. The Council also gets sued regularly on especially election petitions-related matters and Bukirwa personally had to be in court for her employer. The Council works through committees which require legal guidance from time to time. Being PLO also means being Council Secretary and taking minutes for the relevant Council meetings. Being member of top management also gave Bukirwa opportunity to gain the relevant administrative experience.
She is highly educated having started out at Mt. St. Mary’s Namagunga (1992-1997) where she did her O & A’ level education. In 2002, she completed her LLB at Makerere University’s prestigious School of Law before taking on the LDC Diploma in Legal Practice which she completed in 2003. In 2005, she completed the Institute of Chartered Secretaries & Administrators qualification from the North East Worcestershire College Bromsgrove in UK.
Online resume-related information shows that in 2009, Bukirwa, who is one of the few Muslims on the bench, completed her Masters in Laws (LLM International Commercial Law) at the UK’s University of Birmingham. She also has a post graduate diploma in M&E which was completed in 2018 at Uganda Technology & Management University (UTAMU). She has also benefited from several short course training sessions on contracts drafting & negotiations in Nairobi & the UK; Intellectual Property Rights in Thailand, Corporate Governance (2014), Oil & Gas contracts and International Law Institute’s courtroom advocacy techniques.
Besides working at NCHE, Bukirwa also previously (2008) served as Junior Company Secretary at Severnside Housing Association Shrewsbury in UK and also for Christian Salveson, which is a major logistics company based in Birmingham UK. She also had a junior administrator stint at Trident Housing Association in Birmingham (2004-2007).
While working at these UK-based firms, Justice Bukirwa, who those days was still a much younger lady, leveraged several career-enhancing training opportunities. She also did some sales consultancy stints at Next Plc Birmingham UK. She also did some part time social work in the UK, all of which combined to expose her to diverse experiences as a young professional.
Immediately after LDC, she served as a paralegal at Lwere & Co Advocates for at least one year, a period during which she took assignments on diverse areas from the superiors who were supervising her. She is also a reputed scholarly publisher with referenced works. In her early 50s, Bukirwa also fluently speaks English, Luganda, Swahili and intelligible French (just enough to hold a basic conversation).
She is a member of relevant professional bodies such as Uganda Law Society, East African Law Society, The Institute of Management Information Systems and The Institute of Chartered Secretaries & Administrators-all of which must have combined to satisfy the President that she was indeed the fit & proper person for the position of High Court Judge. With age still on her side, Uganda can count on Bukirwa to serve as a bench member for the next 20 years or more; depending on how well it all goes.
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