On Saturday, 24 October, I attended the King Ceasor University Law Dinner, organised by the Law Society of the same institution, at Joy Cafe on Ggaba Road in Bunga. This annual event brought together legal students, established lawyers—teachers of law, among other guests under the same roof to discuss the night’s theme: “Upholding the Dynamics of Legal Education.”

The chief guest and judge of the High Court, Honourable Justice Simon Peter Kinobe, urged the attendees to value one of the greatest gifts on earth, TIME. He reasoned that a lawyer must be punctual, stressing that late coming in his court is not tolerated and that one who falls victim risks his case being thrown out.

He stressed the need for lawyers to read extra hard, citing the difficulty his classmates and he faced back in the day at Makerere University, when law books were scarce to find in libraries, appreciating the role of a variety of alternatives available today, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Arinaitwe Ambrose Santos, the Law Society President of King Ceasor, speaking to The Critique Magazine, said that the event was mainly aimed at “Creating unity and soliciting funds for the project of a legal clinic,” among other reasons. He also cited a “lack of funding from the responsible parties as well as lack of passion” from the students to join the association as some of the challenges he faces, alongside his cabinet.

Justus Karuhanga, a lawyer and one of the keynote speakers, challenged us to read newspapers all the time, warning that those who don’t miss out on a lot. Alternatively, Karuru Moses, the institution’s leader of Opposition (LOP), noted with much concern that, “law students can actually afford to look like lawyers for a night” given their smartness that evening.

Karuru told this publication about the challenges associated with his office, one being his title itself. “People hear opposition and think that you are just there to oppose everything, to fight and make noise. So, even when you raise a genuine issue such as student welfare or fees, people dismiss it as politics.” So, to overcome this, I do so by “redefining opposition as proposition. I don’t just oppose. I propose.”

As we found an exit to this venue, at the death of the night, the onus to protect the Rule of Law, offering legal aid to those in need and advocating for better governance remained our mandate. By us, I mean those who are in legal practice, regardless of whether we belong to the bar or the bench. Collectively, we must not sit back and quietly see injustice prevail in our communities.

For those who wish to study the Law in the future, Santos warns them early enough not to come merely in pursuit of the title of “learned friend” but rather to come because they do have “a burden of justice.” And for those who aspire to lead in the future at the law school as he did, he can only say, “leadership in law school is not power, but service.”