PROFILE: Who is Justice Simon Kakuru

The year 2018 saw one of the panel bench of constitutional court judges hearing a petition challenging the legality of the 2017 age limit, issue a dissenting judgement.

This bold gentleman was justice Kenneth Kakuru, 65, who has died this morning at the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi where he was according to family reports diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Kakuru was famed amongst his legal peers for his openness whenever making a judgement. So many speak of him a bold pillar who always held firm for whatever he perceived to be right.

In the petition against the removal of the age limit in 2018, Kakuru wrote a dissenting judgement where the constitutional court upheld parliament’s decision to remove the presidential age limit of 75 years which allowed Museveni to seek a 6th elective term in office.

“There is always danger that if the constitution is not strictly complied with, our hard earned democracy shall degenerate into authoritarianism which leads to totalitarianism and dictatorship”- said justice Kakuru who was the only dissenting judge on the lifting of the age limit.
The entire constitutional amendment act… is unconstitutional and therefore null and void, and all it’s provisions ought to be expunged from the constitution of Uganda”- Kakuru further said turning into a darling whom Ugandans hailed as a hero.


We take you through the portfolio of this distinguished legal officer who has been hailed for his composure when issuing landmark judgements.

Justice Kakuru was a son to Reverend Eliakim Kamujanduzi, a renowned elder and senior educationist who denied the Omugabe of Ankole His Highness Charles Rutahaba Gatsyonga, Holy Communion at Ruharo Parish saying he (the Omugabe) was polygamous.
Kakuru was born in Uganda in 1958.
Kakuru attended local schools for primary and secondary education
He studied law at Makerere University and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree.
Later he graduated with a Master of Laws (LLM) degree.

He obtained a diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Centre, in Kampala.
He also held a Master of Arts degree in Education Policy Planning and Development, from Kyambogo University.
On January 14, 2012, he married Charity Nankunda Kakuru.

Prior to joining the bench, in 1987 Justice Kakuru, who specialized in public interest litigation, together with other senior lawyers established a law firm, Kakuru & Company Advocates, based in Kampala.
He founded and by the time of his death, Kakuru was a non-executive director of Greenwatch Uganda, an environmental advocacy whose mission is to promote public participation in protection and managing of the environment.
Kakuru was associate professor at the Uganda Pentecostal University and an external examiner at the Law Development Centre in Kampala.
Justice Kakuru was a member of the Uganda Law Society, the East African Law Society, and the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide among other Law bodies.
He was appointed a justice of the Court of Appeal in 2013.
Kenneth Kakuru married the late Winnie Ikiriza Kakuru on September 12, 1987 and together they had three children, Sama, Tracy and Rose. Ikiriza died in 2009