The legal and academic fraternity in Uganda is mourning the death of retired Supreme Court Justice and renowned legal scholar, Prof. George Wilson Kanyeihamba, who passed away after a prolonged illness. His death was confirmed on Sunday by the Uganda Law Society (ULS).
Prof. Kanyeihamba, 84, had been admitted at Nakasero Hospital for several months prior to his passing.
A towering figure in Uganda’s legal and political spheres, Kanyeihamba’s career spanned decades of public service. He served as a cabinet minister, Member of Parliament, and was the chairperson of the Legal Committee of the Constituent Assembly that drafted the 1995 Constitution. In 1997, he was appointed to the Supreme Court, where he served until his retirement in November 2009.
Earlier in his public life, he held several senior positions in President Yoweri Museveni’s government, including Minister of Commerce, Minister of Justice, and Attorney General.
A graduate of the University of Warwick, where he earned his Ph.D. in Law, Prof. Kanyeihamba was later awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) by the same institution in 2008 in recognition of his contributions to constitutionalism and human rights.
In one of the most consequential rulings of his judicial career, Kanyeihamba was among the three Supreme Court justices who found that the 2006 re-election of President Museveni was marred by enough irregularities to warrant annulment. The ruling, though in the minority, is believed by some observers to have cost him a seat on the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Prof. Kanyeihamba was also a vocal critic of state overreach. He publicly condemned the 2005 armed invasion of the High Court by security operatives to re-arrest treason suspects who had been granted bail—a move the Constitutional Court later declared unconstitutional.
Born on August 11, 1939, in Kinaba, Kinkizi District in the Kigezi Region, Kanyeihamba was the youngest of eleven children. His early education took him through several mission and government schools before attending Kigezi High School and Busoga College Mwiri.
He pursued legal studies in the United Kingdom, earning his undergraduate law degree from Portsmouth University and later lecturing at several institutions including the University of Portsmouth, Coventry University (then Lanchester Polytechnic), and the University of Wales in Cardiff.
Upon returning to Uganda, he worked as a State Attorney and lectured at the Law Development Centre in Entebbe. Over his career, he authored several scholarly articles and books on constitutional law, governance, and human rights.
Prof. Kanyeihamba’s contributions to legal education, jurisprudence, and democratic discourse in Uganda have left an enduring legacy.
