LEGAL EDUACATION IN COLONIAL UGANDA: 1894-1962.

1. The state of legal education in pre-colonial Uganda.

Uganda as a territorial unit is a creation of the colonial period. It was started as a project of the
Imperial British East African Company.1 Its external boundaries were determined first by internal
agreements and then by administrative convenience. As a result, Uganda contains forty different
peoples who belong to one of four completely different major languages groups; the Nilotic people
in the North, the Sudanese in the Northwest, the Nilo-Hamites in the North East and the Bantu
who occupied the area in the South.2 According to the third schedule of the Constitution, Uganda
had fifty six indigenous communities by 19263 and to date, these are the communities recognized
by the government of Uganda.

Prior to the European arrival in Africa, there appeared to be no formal system of legal education
that produced legal professionals as the term is presently understood.4 Even with no formal legal
education system, traditional African culture attached great importance to the law and legal
education. Learning of customary laws and practices was generally an informal life-long process.5
Traditional legal systems and customary laws in African polyethnic societies formed part of a
functioning, coherent, and consistent totality of the African way of life. Those who would be
regarded as legal professionals in present times traditionally would have been seen as merely
performing their social duties. The role of legal professionals was not litigation. Rather, legal
professionals performed public interest services and used mediation to resolve disputes and
maintain balance and harmony between parties and in the community.6 Such legal professionals
included chiefs, elders, and people with particular law-related responsibilities or functions. Many
others were instrumental in establishing the rule of law by upholding societal values and helping
in dispute resolution. Linguists, for example, performed various functions during disputes.

Legal representation was not necessary in traditional adjudications because the parties to any
dispute were required to appear in person to present their case. In limited instances, there was
some form of representation. For example, a relative or other "champion-at-law" occasionally
represented disputants at a customary adjudication. Essentially, however, the traditional legal

1 Dr. Busingye Kabumba: Black laws Matter, Benedicto Kiwanuka’s Legacy, and the rule of law in the ‘new normal’
2Henry Francis Morris & James S. Read, Uganda: The Development of its laws and constitution, (British Commonwealth
Series, Vol. 13.) London: Stevens 1966
3The third Schedule of the 1995 constitution of Uganda as Amended
4 Manteaw, S. (n.d.). McGeorge Law Review Legal Education in Africa: What Type of Lawyer Does Africa Need.

Issue 4 Article, [online] 39, pp.1–1. Available at:

2. Early Legal Developments in Colonial Uganda.

Colonization changed this state of affairs significantly. It introduced formal legal education and
legal representation and compounded legal pluralism in Uganda and across Africa. Although it
provided useful juridical patterns for contemporary Ugandan legal system, colonization, and the
legal education it introduced focused on litigation to the detriment of other useful roles that
lawyers could perform.

In 1902 a quasi-legal profession began to develop when the British colonial administration
introduced a system of courts, patterned after the British system. An organized legal profession
able to apply English laws and procedures thus became necessary. Through the Reception clause
of the 1902 Order-in-council, the common law statutes of general application of the United
Kingdom would be applied to Uganda. Customary law would only be applied in so far as it was
not repugnant to natural justice, equity, and good conscience.8 Therefore the law which defined
every aspect of the lives of the African people was pushed to the curb and interpreted and applied
under an English man’s lens of good conscience. The 1902 Order-In-Council under Article 22 of
the empowered the high court, with approval of the Commissioner to make rules to regulate the
conditions in which persons were to be admitted to practice as advocates in the courts of Uganda.

In 1904, Judge G.F.M Elvis made the rules entitled “ The Uganda Legal practitioners Rules,
1904”. These rules set out who was entitled to practice law in Uganda.

Rule 1 provided that these were to be;

Members of the Bar of England, Scotland, or Ireland

Solicitors of the Supreme Court in England or Ireland

Pleaders who had been admitted to practice before one of the high courts in India. And Native
Vakeels9 Accordingly, formal legal education became an essential enterprise. Moreover, the lack of
qualified persons in the colonies compelled the fusion of barristers-those who appear in court-and

7 Ibid
8 Rex V Amkeyo where the act of paying bride price was deemed repugnant as it was equated to wife purchase
9 Vakeel is a hindu word for lawyer
solicitors those who are confined to office work-and "marked the beginning of a fused legal
profession in Uganda.

Furthermore, Rule 4 provided that if in the opinion of the judge, the number of pleaders was
insufficient for the public requirements in any court, he/she may, in his/her discretion admit other
persons of good character and sufficient capability to practice in that court but such persons shall
only be licensed to practice during the pleasure of the judge.

Rule 5 provided that in any proceedings in the high court or any of the courts subordinate thereto,
native vakeels may, in the discretion of the judge be permitted to represent natives, upon such
terms and conditions as the judge may think fit.

Therefore, the native vakeels were to be allowed to only represent their fellows under the
conditions a judge thought fit in response to the shortage in personnel. This however does not
speak to a willingness by the British to have African integrated in the legal system. The policy was
clear, to keep Africans from becoming advocates. In a letter from the foreign office, from W.F.
Gower to the Governor of Uganda, J.M. Thomas, dated 7th September, 1931, it was stated “I agree
that facilities of the character suggested by Mr. Macmillan Moll for admission of Africans as solicitors need not be
introduced until there is evidence that advantage is likely to be taken of them”10 In a further letter to the
registrar it was stated that “I wish to refer to the question of the admission of native Vakeels to the bar. It is
felt strongly that no more vakeels should be admitted to practice.”11 The fear on the part of the officers of
the crown was that these could easily spear head the nationalist movement.12

This strategy was quite successful as seen in the late admission of natives into practice. The first
legal practitioner in Uganda was A.D. Hakim who began practice in 1904.

In 1913 the Uganda Law Society was formed, the roll of advocates commenced in 1926 and listed
a total of 122 Advocates; 4 Asians and 8 Europeans. By the time of Independence there were, on
the roll, 183 advocates, 142 Asians, 25 Europeans and 16 Africans of which 13 were practicing in
other East African territories and had requested to be admitted into Uganda. Only 3 were
practicing in Uganda13. This spoke to reluctance to admit natives into legal practice till time of
Independence.

10 S. D Ross, op.cit. page 62

Since there was no form of legal education in the colonized African countries, the only way an
African could become a lawyer was to journey to London, join an Inn of Court, and acquire
English professional qualifications. Only the rich could embark on such a quest to attain legal
education. As a result, in the colonial era, British expatriates and Asians heavily patronized and
dominated the legal profession in the African colonies. Of the one hundred lawyers in Tanganyika
(now Tanzania) in 1961, only one was African. There were less than ten Africans out of the over
three hundred qualified lawyers in Kenya. Out of about one hundred and fifty lawyers in Uganda,
only twenty were African.14

The Ugandan legal profession, composed largely of wealthy foreigners, had little interest in public
interest law (as opposed to the practice in pre-colonial times). The profession's focus, as influenced
by British legal education curricula, was on private practice, representing rich and commercial
clients, and litigating cases. This seemed to have facilitated the profession's loss of touch with local
realities and with the needs and aspirations of the poor majority. More importantly, there were
grave inadequacies in the London legal training that prepared these lawyers for practice in Africa.

4. Trained in London to Practice in Africa: Inadequacies.

According to Ndulo, although a call to the English Bar was considered sufficient for admission to
practice in most African countries [during the colonial era], the legal education provided by the
Inns of Court was-and is not today-in itself adequate training for practice in Africa. The legal
training paid no attention to the problems of practicing in an underdeveloped country with
multiple systems of law. In fact, English-trained lawyers did not study the customary laws of
African countries as part of their education even though customary law was and still is a very
important part of the African legal system. Also, with hardly any exception, all the African lawyers
were trained as barristers (advocates) and not solicitors.15 This presented a problem that still affects
African legal education and the legal profession. According to L. C. B. Gower, because African
lawyers were trained exclusively as barristers, the focus in African law was, and continues to be,
litigation. Not even the dramatic increase in local legal training initiatives during the independence
era could change the profession's fixation on litigation and private practice.

14 Infra note 4.
15 Infra note 4.
5. A time for radical policy change of legal education of African natives: 1950 -1962.

As earlier noted, before 1950, there existed no opportunity whatsoever in Uganda for individuals
to pursue a career as a legal practitioner. A clear policy was in place to prevent Africans from
studying law. Throughout the colonial administration, officials were apprehensive about the idea
of Africans being trained in law, as they saw them, perhaps rightly so, as potential leaders of the
nationalist movement16.

However, beginning in 1950s, there was a radical policy change regarding legal education of native
Africans. In 1952, the then Chief Secretary of Uganda Protectorate Government issued a Notice
entitled “African Pupils Crown Law Chambers’’. This notice provided that the Attorney
General, with the consent of the Governor, had accepted to train Uganda citizens aspiring to join
the colonial legal service in his chambers for the English Bar. This led to the opening of the law
school at Nsamizi at Entebbe, which was based on the model of the Institute of Administration,
Zaria, and which since 1961, gave instructions to native Courts Judges and students reading for
part 1 of the English Bar examinations, after passing of Which they went to London for the final
part. Quite a few gentlemen did qualify through this avenue as legal practitioners.

According to Gower, in the English legal system of the time, barristers were considered properly
trained only if they had obtained a law degree, completed bar preparation, and undergone pupillage
for at least a year in reputable chambers. However, in the African colonies, individuals were
permitted to practice as both barristers and solicitors without possessing a law degree or
undergoing pupillage, with their sole qualification being a call to the Bar in England17. Gower
argued that even if these individuals underwent a traditional three-month post-call training
program, it was inadequate for the tasks they were expected to perform. Additionally, less than 25
percent of African students were admitted to universities in Britain or Ireland, and even those who
did attend were primarily taught English law, lacking relevance to the legal frameworks in East or
West Africa. Gower criticized the English legal profession for failing to adequately support African
students.18

In the late 1950s, African lawyers began to emerge as significant figures in the Uganda Protectorate,
largely through self-education in the British Common Law tradition. However, by 1961, out of
approximately 150 practicing lawyers in Uganda, only 20 were African. Despite their small

16 Associate. Professor, A Wazarwahi Bwengye, “Legal Practice in Uganda’’ The law , training, Practice and conduct
of advocates, 2020
17 Gower, LCB, Independent Africa: The challenge to the legal profession. (1967)
18 Ibid
numbers, this group of lawyers took on the considerable responsibility of challenging colonial
dominance and oppression using the resources available to them19.

It is worth noting that despite advancements, we appear to have regressed to a state reminiscent
of colonial times, where the privileged few in Uganda, akin to colonialists, are the ones able to
afford and access high-quality legal education, often through prestigious institutions like Makerere
University. On the other hand, the less privileged Ugandans resemble the natives or the Africans
of colonial times, facing significant barriers to obtaining legal education due to financial
constraints.

6. THE LORD DENNING COMMITTEE.

The British Government created the Denning Committee in October 1960 to examine legal
education in Africa and to make recommendations for a suitable scheme of training. The role of
the Denning Committee was defined as follows:

(a) To consider, and report as soon as possible, what facilities ought to be made available to provide
any additional instruction and training, either in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, which may be
required to ensure that those members of local bars in Africa who obtain their legal qualifications
possess the knowledge and experience required to fit them for practice in the special conditions
of the territories in which they are to practice, with special reference to the following:

(b) the acquisition of the practical experience in addition to academic qualifications ....

(c) .. consideration should also be given . . . to the means to be adopted in the educational sphere
to give the ...[African countries] assistance which they may require in whatever provision they make
for the education in Africa of local inhabitants seeking legal qualification.

Dr. Busingye Kabumba, Black Laws Matter, ‘’Benedicto Kiwanuka’s Legacy and The Rule Of Law In
19

The New Normal’’ Keynote Address, 2020.

The idea of setting up a Committee on Legal Education for Students from Africa seems to have
arisen at the London Conference on the Future of Law in Africa chaired by Lord Denning in 1960.
It recommended that:

a committee should be set up without delay to consider, and report as soon as possible,
what facilities should be made available to provide such additional instruction and training,
either in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, as m necessary to ensure that members of local
Bars in Africa possess the knowledge and experience to fit them for practice in the special
conditions of the territories in which they are to practice…20
The committee was chaired by Lord Denning and other members included Lord Justice Diplock,
as he then was, Professor J.N.D. Anderson of the University of London, Sir Kenneth Roberts-
Wray, legal advisor to the Commonwealth Relations and Colonial Offices, and Professor L.C.B.
Gower of the University of Lagos.21

6.2 Background to the Lord Denning Committee.

There were three related reasons why the committee was convened at this time and with such
urgency. First, there had for some time been a good deal of criticism regarding the training
provided to African students by the Inns of Court. Most would-be African practitioners up to that
time studied at the Inns of Court in London: by 1959 there were 438 African students, out of a
total of 1,251.22 Complaints, made for the most part in private, centered on both educational and
welfare issues. Many questioned the suitability of training as barristers students who would return
to Africa to practice in a fused profession. Alleged weaknesses of London-educated students
included: a belief that the sole role of the lawyer is litigation; weak advocacy based on poor
preparation, the latter being the function of a solicitor and not covered by an Inns of Court
training; poor levels of legal draftsmanship; failure to prepare proper accounts or keep separate
client; accounts; and ignorance of local law. The Inns of Court were also perceived to have
neglected the welfare of African students. Critics mentioned the great costs imposed on students,
poor accommodation, the requirement of dining at the Inns and the high failure rate which was
attributed to insufficient vetting of students' academic ability before they arrived. As a result, many
African students returned home disgruntled and discouraged.23

20 Harrington, J.A. and Manji, A. (2003). ‘Mind with Mind and Spirit with Spirit’: Lord Denning and African Legal
Education. Journal of Law and Society, 30(3), pp.376–399. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6478.00262.
21 Ibid
22 Ibid
23 Ibid
This dissatisfaction was of especial concern in the context of British decolonization in
Africa, which formed the geopolitical backdrop to the committee's work, and indeed to all
of Lord Denning's interventions in this area. The period 1960-1 was marked by an important
change of emphasis in British government policy on decolonization. In the early 1950s London
had planned for a slow process of withdrawal from Africa, a period during which it could discharge
what it believed to be its tutelary obligations in respect of the 'underdeveloped' peoples of the
continent. This motive was crossed with the less altruistic desire to retain a share of the hard
currency generated by the sale of colonial products and primary goods.24 However, the timescale
for decolonization had to be compressed as a consequence of African nationalism and the post-
war ideology of national self-determination, as well as the often violent unilateralism of British
settlers in East and Central Africa.24

During the general election campaign of 1959, the collective and individual rights of colonized
Africans were raised by Labour candidates and by several of the Christian churches. Following
upon the Conservative victory, the new Colonial Secretary, Iain Macleod, pursued decolonization
with an unprecedented vigour born of ethical commitment and a pragmatic recognition of the
imperatives of the time. The new haste was also reflected in Harold Macmillan's so-called 'Winds
of Change' speech, made at Cape Town in February 1960.

In this phase of rapid change Britain sought to retain something of its old standing in decolonizing
territories and on the world stage. A study of the costs and benefits of colonialism and of
decolonization, commissioned by Macmillan in 1957, had recommended that:

during the period when we can still exercise control in any territory, it is most important
to take every step open to us to ensure, as far as we can, that British standards and methods
of business and administration permeate the whole life of the territory.
Although Commonwealth was replacing Empire, in the legal sphere the shared common law could
still bind the new nations of Africa to the 'mother country'. Looking back in regret a few years
later, L.C.B. Gower noted that at:

any one time since the war there have been in London some 2000 African law students
some of whom would be the future leaders of their countries. Had the Inns of Court
instituted courses suitable for future practitioners in Africa and provided [them with]
residential accommodation ... bonds of goodwill might have been forged which could have
affected the whole history of the Commonwealth and the common law. Instead, they did
nothing until it was too late.

24 Ibid
The third explanation for the urgency with which the Denning committee was convened lies in
the strained state of relations between the old colonial empires and the new superpowers. As the
aborted invasion of Egypt (the 'Suez crisis') in 1956 demonstrated, Britain could not expect the
United States of America to support its enduring imperial ambitions. Furthermore, the Americans
were rivals (however friendly) in the race to acquire clients among the newly independent states.
It was the policy of the then new Kennedy administration to support African nationalism in so far
as it dissociated itself from Soviet communism. In the realm of legal education this meant funding
and helping to organize new law schools in certain former British colonies, and elsewhere.

The superior resources of American universities, the ease with which they could second legal
academics to Africa, and the keen interest of agencies such as the Ford Foundation and the
Rockefeller Foundation in African legal education all caused acute concern in interested circles in
Britain at the time. Lord Denning discussed these matters in March 1961 with Robert Stevens,
then Assistant Professor of Law at Yale.25 On forwarding some of this correspondence to J.C.
McPetrie, Legal Adviser at the Colonial Office, ice, he wrote:

I enclose a copy of a letter I have just received from an Englishman who is teaching law at
Yale. He came to see me in January and told me how much interest the Americans were
taking in the new law schools in Africa. I was rather reserved about it, as he says in his
letter, because I feel that it is far better for us to get some of our English lawyers to go out
there lest Americans take an undue part.26
Anthony Allott was similarly perturbed by these developments. He informed McPetrie at around
the same time that:

I have recently returned from a visit to various law schools in the United States where I
was able among other things to hear about the very wide-ranging plans they are now
making for participation in African law and legal education ... Some of the American law
schools appear to be almost thinking of taking over African legal education, and Yale
(which is in the forefront of this movement) has got its eyes on Dar es Salaam.
The delicate, but strategically important work of cultivating lawyers in the new Africa was thus
endangered by American intervention. The new speed of decolonization had to be matched by
rapid support for African legal education.

25
Ibid
26
Ibid
6.3 Recommendations of the committee.

After extensive hearings and discussions, the Denning Committee recommended that African
countries not admit lawyers to local practice merely on the basis of British qualifications. It
suggested requiring additional practical training in local law and procedure. The Committee further
recommended the establishment of local training facilities, and specifically recommended the
establishment of a law school in Dar-es-Salaam to serve East Africa. The Denning Committee's
recommendations were largely adopted and have influenced the system of legal education in
Africa. Of particular significance was the proposal that the normal pattern of legal education in
the African territories should be a degree in law at an African university followed by one year of
practical training at a school of law. This recommendation formed the basis for common law
Africa's two-tiered legal education system: academic legal education in a university's law faculty for
a Bachelor of Laws degree and subsequent professional legal training in a law school for a "call to
the Bar" (a Barrister/Solicitors' Certificate).

7. Conclusion.

A study of legal education in colonial Uganda lays ground for how the Uganda contemporary legal
education should be understood. That is, a continuation of the broader phenomenon of British
dominance over the African people of which colonialism was but a mere instance of this
phenomenon. As the discussion on legal education in subsequent periods will reveal, despite the
formal end of colonial rule, the legal education system established during the colonial period
continued to exert influence in post-independence Uganda. Many of the legal institutions, laws,
and practices inherited from colonialism persist, shaping the legal landscape of Uganda and
perpetuating patterns of domination and marginalization just as did during the colonial days.
REFERENCES.

Dr. Busingye Kabumba, Black Laws Matter, ‘’Benedicto Kiwanuka’s Legacy and The Rule Of Law In The New
Normal’’ Keynote Address, 2020.

Harrington, J.A. and Manji, A. (2003). ‘Mind with Mind and Spirit with Spirit’: Lord Denning and African Legal
Education. Journal of Law and Society, 30(3), pp.376–399. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6478.00262.

Henry Francis Morris & James S. Read, Uganda: The Development of its laws and constitution, (British Commonwealth
Series, Vol. 13.) London: Stevens 1966

Manteaw, S. (n.d.). McGeorge Law Review Legal Education in Africa: What Type of Lawyer Does Africa Need.
Issue 4 Article, [online] 39, pp.1–1. Available at:
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1197&context=mlr [Accessed 17 Mar. 2024].

Wazarwahi Bwengye, “ Legal Practice in Uganda’’ The law , training, Practice and conduct of advocates, 2020