Thread by @IsaacSsemakadde

This thread by a nostalgic, young & impressionable lawyer @SilverKayondo is a prime example of how not to whitewash the dead, and a good starting point to probe the phenomenon of a "successful, renowned & respectable lawyer" in post-colonial countries like Uganda. A counterthread

https://twitter.com/SilverKayondo/status/1365910855712391175

I am sure that many Ugandans, including @SilverKayondo, have never heard of the JOHARI Window — a pyschological model (see frame) that can help us gain much-needed clarity on our ever-changing world and the shadowy, shifty "winners" like Bob Kasango who are lionised by elites.

If Bob was 'truly great' as claimed & his mentee & obituarist were truly honest as the public intellectual he pretends to be, Tweeps would have been offered a more accurate portrait of the deceased; not this cliché of an imperialist wannabe that CRASHED & BURNED in his own movie

It's no secret that Bob was an enigma, even to himself, until he was serially convicted and literally condemned to die in solitary confinement during a pandemic.

Yet @SilverKayondo exclusively tells us things in his mentor's ARENA — Bob's brains, panache & wheeler dealing. Why?

Why did @SilverKayondo evade Bob's FAÇADE, BLINDSPOT & UNKNOWN? I suspect it could be 'maalo' or confirmation bias.

As long as you get rich & bring an air of 'respectability' to the legal profession, then you will be one of their own, even from prison, and even when struck off.

BLINDSPOT

@SilverKayondo's thread glorifies the petit bourgeois mindset which constituted Bob's blindspot and tragically led to his downfall.

Many lawyers in the post-colony share this mindset & therefore will have learnt nothing & forgotten nothing from Bob's escapades.

@SilverKayondo's ballad for his mentor is eerily reminiscent of the tragic story of Icarus in Greek mythology.

Icarus and his father Daedalus were imprisoned on an island by the King.

To escape, Daedalus – a master craftsman – created 2 sets of wings made of wax and feathers.

"INITIAL CONDITIONS"

Daedalus warned his son not to fly too close to the sun, as the wax would melt; and not to fly too low, as the feathers could get wet in the sea.

But these warnings went unheeded, as Icarus was so excited by the experience of flight that he went higher...

As the wax in his wings melted, Icarus tumbled into the sea and drowned.

The saying "don't fly too close to the sun" refers to Icarus' recklessness and defiance of limitations.

And just like Icarus, our "high-flyer" Bob Kasango also failed to escape from the prison island.

The "initial conditions" Bob Kasango sought to pass on to his apprentice were fatally flawed.

Flying your PC (practicing certificate) too close to the sun has felled many lawyers who planned grandly but failed miserably by overestimating their knowledge, foresight & ability.

The Icarus syndrome, with its signature lack of humility, is a pattern that every lawyer with a PC needs to be concerned about.

Legal practice is premised on the idea of the State, and free citizens. But 60 yrs after "Independence", we are still natives, trapped in a neocolony.

Where the State is a product of criminality and abuse, which is the case with all ex-colonies, then the practice of law is basically dependent on a rotten & rigged system, and an unjust base.

The native lawyer is trapped in a neocolony that imposes neoliberal policies "legally".

IN THE POSTCOLONY

Privatisation, retrenchment, stealing of our land & resources, selling of our youths into slavery in Arabia, etc are all done within the sanction of the Law.

And many unlawful things aren't stopped by the law authorities.

Law & Justice are not the same thing.

And so while eulogizing Bob Kasango — an unemployed fifty-year-old has-been, disbarred from the legal profession in 2017 & disgraced by multiple fraud convictions, it must be asked:

"In a postcolonial situation, what is the best use of law, or what can a lawyer best do with it?"

Before closing the chapter on Bob "Icarus" Kasango, let us re-examine the factors influencing public perception of the reputation, popularity & performance of lawyers on the Postcolony.

What should be the correct method of assessing who is or was a "good" lawyer, and who's not?

Who's a Good Lawyer, and Who's Not?

Is it the clique of @NRMOnline sycophants & surrogates who carry water for the Dictator?

Or, fabled fixers like Bob Kasango, whose "expertise" was in gaming the system, and working the legal levers for the sake of primitive accumulation?

FAÇADE

To be fair, Bob Kasango was not a pariah at the Bar.

Even after courts & Law Council Disciplinary Committee had pulled off his mask, he remained a media darling; a favourite of many in legal & political-military elite circles, idolised & mystified as the boy wonder "Q".

It is an ironic, poetic ending to the deceitful life & career of Robert Aldridge Kasango alias Bob alias Okello alias Q that, even in death, this conman was misleadingly enabled to hold out as an "Advocate" & "learned brother" by none other than @ug_lawsociety prez @PheonaWall.

The upshot of it all is that many lawyers are miserably & permanently trapped in a pandemic of petty buorgeois expectations, attitudes & prejudices, and the hard mask of professional ethics gave away to primitive accumulation of capital by indulging in land grabs, corruption, etc

MASK OFF!

In his ballad for Bob Kasango, @SilverKayondo brags, with impish glee, about the "initial conditions to become a world-class lawyer" inculcated by his mentor.

He was describing a businessman doing business, not somebody contributing to jurisprudential knowledge.

And in that sense, Kasango was right & logical.

He was initiating his apprentice into becoming a comprador, by affirming the "right" of the neocolony to continue enforcing our oppression.

He was "logical" to seek to personalize the theft that the neocolony carries out on us.

His problem was to get caught.

But many lawyers defend theft & impoverishment, and take advantage of others on the daily.

They help write contracts and go to court in aid of multinationals & shady investors seeking to evict our people, or defend the introduction of #GMO seeds.

KASANGOISM: "Successful, renowned city lawyers" constantly hustle foreigners for gigs & A-list ratings & indulge in primitive accumulation by supporting land grabs, grand corruption, counterfeiting, etc & are less preoccupied with the delivery of actual justice on the Postcolony.

@ug_lawsociety elites see themselves in the same boat as Bob "Q" Kasango. They're different only bcoz they are yet to be caught & unmasked!

Like Q, they see Law as Strictly Business— "with no deal too far", and the PC & @LDCUganda diploma their version of @KCCAUG trading licence

THE UNKNOWN

It's difficult to know why, despite being born into a humble family from Tororo and trained as a lawyer on state subsidy, the "accomplished lawyer" Bob Kasango displayed much contempt for his roots, ordinary people & the institutions that had put their trust in him.

Even less clear is why Kasango carried out all the scams for which he was convicted & disbarred, or what he did with the stolen money.

One would have thought that he had amassed more than enough money to support his lifestyle and his family's lifestyle.

kfm.co.ug/news/city-lawy…

Even in death, Bob Kasango almost got away with it!

In lamenting his death, @ug_lawsociety prez @PheonaWall dodged the fact that he had discredited his profession by getting convicted for fraud. She didn't even lament the pain & loss he'd inflicted on humble pensioners & others.