Busobozi Wyclif
12/06/2009,
In the S.1 C class at St Henry’s College Kitovu, after one of our Friday debates, Madam Lwanga Kasozi – my English teacher – calls me after the class and asks me what I want to be in future. Being the son of 2 medical practitioners, I told her: “pharmacist”. So she asks me if I have given any thought to being a lawyer, coz I was good at debating. And thus the seed was planted!
Somewhere around the end of 2010, my sister, who had herself wanted to be a lawyer, gave me a John Grisham book – ‘A time to kill’. To this date, one of the best reads I have ever had – which I think is the reason for my undying love for criminal law. Anyone who has read a John Grisham book, you know what I mean. Long story short, from the moment I finished reading that book, there was no turning back for me, it was law or law!
Fast forward to 2013, I joined Uganda Martyrs Namugongo. My mum was still insisting I do something with a leaning to science but, owning to me having intentionally failed Technical Drawing which I was forced to do at S4, my dad didn’t want to risk.
S6 vac, my dad insisted I shouldn’t do law because to him, lawyers have a dirty conscience. He said, “Me as a doctor, I can come home in the evening and take a beer knowing I have saved people’s lives, but now you as a lawyer, you’ll go home knowing you have helped a guilty man go free”.
My mum kept telling me, lawyers do not go to heaven because as the general stereotype goes, lawyers are liars! The day we signed the jab forms, my dad put me on a call with his auditor friend who spoke to me for a whole hour about auditing but nooo, I was fixed! So he tells me, if I am to pay my money, it won’t be for law! I think I cried after that statement. But then I managed to convince him to pay for pre-entry, but before payment, he reminded me of his position with regard to paying for the course.
I went for that Makerere Law pre-entry with one goal, it was either government scholarship or nothing. And with God as my witness, I laid everything on the line. Results came out and I was the 18th among the 2800 people that sat for the exam so, Government scholarship!
Law school came with its tribulations but I met a couple of great people with whom we walked the journey. The protracted discussions, the late nights at the library, Mpanga’s menacing classes… But we still made time to have a good time, hang out, chat, party, fall in love… Yes, we made the best lemonade of the lemons we were served. And on 17/01/2020 we bagged that law degree!
In September 2019, we were sent to Mbarara on our next step in the pursuit of a career in law, LDC!! I am not going to lie, this was collectively the worst time of my life! In her address at orientation, the head bar Course told us to call home and tell our people to assume we are dead. “Here at LDC, there are no parties, no weddings, no funerals…all that doesn’t matter here”, she said! We really didn’t have a good time! To a point that I had to tell my then-girlfriend to stop visiting because that time wasn’t there!’
From the weekend buried in discussions, reading cases and making notes for the week so as to avoid being sent out of class for having not made notes – to a week filled with at most 4 hours of sleep per night, classes and more reading – culminating into an exam every Friday.
But in all this, we made a discussion group – people who turned out to be more than just friends, family now. I guess it was because we met literally every single day of our stay at the centre. I LOVE YOU GUYS SOO SOO MUCH. Thank you guys for allowing me to be your discussion group leader. Thank you for the knowledge, time and moments we shared. Being among minds like yours really pushed me to put in the work! Huge Congratulations to each and every one of you whether you were on the list or not! Because you are all winners in a system that is rigged to fail us. Those not on the list, it’s just a matter of time
Yes, we (me and most of the people) above met up on Friday night after the exams at a place not being school, to proceed under the Enguli Act for purposes of maintaining mental sanity, to drink away the old week and prepare for the new one coz LDC really pushed us to the limit!
COVID-19! Thanks to the presidential announcement on the closure of school on 18/03/2020, in the middle of our oral exams, Mr Wambuga resorted to dishing out timetables at 3 am owing to which I did my civil oral exam Live, but in all this, just like Moses, God gave me the words to speak. Then came the lockdown and, like most families, we prayed. I remember praying a novena to the Uganda martyrs, praying that I pass the bar course. In the meantime, the battle was raging as to whether we should do online studies or not. In the end, LDC prevailed!
The classes resumed and so did our discussions. And just like that. while the rest of the nation was resting, we were drowning in books again! After which came the 3 months of exams to make up for the weekly exams (IAs), Orals, Category B and C exams, and the finals. One voice I’ll never forget is Brian Paul’s screaming, 5 mins!”, when it was time to submit our answers, then following it with “Nzena mpulila Nkankana”. Hands tired, back aching, internet failing we submitted the scripts! And it was onto the next one!
At the end of IAs, just before the category B subjects, the entire discussion group, apart from Brian Paul, gets hit by COVID!! That’s a story for another day, but damn, that was a nasty feeling! Anyway, the lord still made a way and we did the papers!
I was granted clerkship placement at Ortus Advocates where I met a great deal of nice, inspirational and extremely hardworking people who have greatly influenced the lawyer that I am becoming! My journey is just beginning!
I couldn’t possibly mention everyone that was a part of this journey, I thank you all for the help extended to me and for being there!
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