Ands Emmanuel

Is there more to the Molly Katanga case, especially the way it's reported on social media, than meets the eye? Yesterday I simply doubted her defence in a post by @ntvuganda & a person who should be a total stranger to the case angrily replied that I, as a lawyer, shouldn't be making such comments! The irony is of course bigger than the Kilimanjaro, but they didn't see it - Jah alone knows why. Then, in a casual conversation not long ago, a journalist told me how he, and others, were approached and offered money to report the case in a way that portrays Molly as an innocent victim. Normally, who the real victim is becomes clear when the facts - as they are - are reported. When journalists are given money to bias their reporting, there surely must be something more to the case. Molly already lost round one, the court found that she does have a case to answer. Of course, that isn't a conviction, and she may as well be found not guilty in the end, but the aggressive, concerted and relentless nature certain quarters have reported that case is also telling. However, maybe it also shows that the lawyers should do their bit, the paid influencers and journalists are probably not doing much to help them in the end? Not sure there has been another Ugandan case where social media influencers so deliberately pushed a particular narrative, and yet, it isn't a case of someone abducted for their political belief or killed for attending say a political rally. What's also interesting is the people involved are also those not very interested in justice and human rights, ordinarily. You’d be hard pressed to find one case where they devoted just 5 per cent of the attention as they have devoted to the case in question. Eddy Mutwe, Kizza Besigye, Sam Mugumya, etc are really not their interest. Yet, now they go as far as to say, I who comments on virtually any case, can't comment on that one if my doing so isn't per their narrative. Interesting! Anyway, I hope that when all is said and done, justice gets served. Maybe justice is Molly being found not guilty, or maybe it is her being guilty, I don't care, I have no dog in the fight. Let the chips fall where they may.