Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, said on Wednesday that National Unity Platform (NUP) legal team leader and former Namisindwa County MP candidate Anthony Wameli had passed away. Wameli passed away while receiving medical care in the United States.
St. Anthony Medical Center in Kasangati, Wakiso District was the first hospital where the former Nakasongola grade one magistrate will spend time in May 2021 owing to stomach-related issues. It was reported at the time by his wife Olive Wameli that her husband had to be brought to the hospital.
The way he was doing, we feared.
He was really struggling. Unfortunately, his health is declining rapidly. That’s why I chose his cell phone,” Olive told a reporter.
After that, Wameli’s best friend, Geoffrey Turyamusiima, informed reporters that Wameli had been suffering from severe peptic ulcers for weeks, which might have contributed to his health decline.
After a few more weeks, he was taken to Kampala and then flown to the United States, where he received a stage four cancer diagnosis at Boston Medical Center in Massachusetts.
Wameli was one of Mr. Kyagulanyi’s attorneys when he petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn President Museveni’s landslide victory in the parliamentary elections held on January 14, 2021.
Wameli & Co. Advocates is an organisation he founded and manages; it currently has eight full-time staff members and has helped more than 300 young lawyers get their start.
Over the course of his decade-plus career as a lawyer, he represented clients in a broad variety of cases, including those who were accused of terrorism.
For around three years, he was a Magistrate Grade one at the Chief Magistrate’s Court in Nakasongola.
In 2017, Mr. Wameli, a former pastor of Ebenezer Christian Fellowship in Kanyanya, rocketed to prominence as a human rights lawyer while defending those accused of murdering former police spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi. In addition, he has been acting as counsel for Jamil Mukulu, the self-proclaimed head of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). He defended former presidential contender General Henry Tumukunde and imprisoned former Office of the Prime Minister principal accountant Geoffrey Kazinda.
Wameli was honoured as 2021’s top criminal defence attorney by the Uganda Law Society (ULS) on September 10 of that year. The members of ULS named Wameli and Company Advocates the best legal firm of the year at the AGM.
Read Also: Who was Mama Cax and how did she die?