She is a Partner and Head of the Technology and Innovation practice at KATS – Katende, Ssempebwa & Company Advocates one of Uganda’s leading 5 law firms. She has a keen interest in Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies, Fintechs, Cyberlaw and Data Protection. But as we got to discover, she is much more than that. She sat down with CEO East Africa’s Executive Editor, Muhereza Kyamutetera to tell her story.
Tell us about yourself⏤ how do you describe yourself?
I’m Alice Namuli Blazevic. I am a lawyer by profession. I’ve been practising law for the last 19 years, going to 20. It occurred to me recently, that they’re not so many able people able to work in the same space for that very long time, especially young people these days. I’m sure you have noticed that a lot of people easily move from one place to another. But I’ve been actually at Katende Ssempebwa & Co. Advocates (KATS) since I left law school, I interned here. I started my legal career and rose through the ranks to Partner level.
I head the tech and innovation department. My specialisation is in technology and the law. Over the years, I have largely majored in servicing businesses that use emerging technologies or I would say the new technologies on the market. I tend to specialise more in companies that are in the financial sector.
Someone recently asked me why the finance technology sector. I have a background in finance; my background is in project finance⏤ public–private partnerships and private equity. I think that became pretty much very easy for me to understand the financial sector. But also one of the reasons I got into the financial sector and technology was, that I like the kind of impact that new technologies were and are bringing into the financial services space, especially bridging the gap between the very rich and the very poor.
Because for a very long time, the very poor people in our country were not able to access, financial services easily. But now, because of the technologies we have, it’s so easy for someone anywhere in Uganda, to have a financial account⏤ it could be a mobile money account or some kind of financial services account, easily. Of course, we have all these online banking platforms that have made it much easier. That is one of the things that really steered me into that area.
That is something that is hardly trained in law school- at least in Uganda. How did we get here?
I love and I’ve trained myself a lot in understanding the technologies themselves, specifically, in understanding blockchain technology and AI. Right now we use I think AI, in everything in our daily lives. I’m a very good user of CHAT GPT for example, and I like what it does, and the magic it brings on board, in everything, but I’m also very aware of the dangers these technologies have. So, I usually go into the spaces with two eyes, knowing that, yes, this is the impact actually that technologies have, and can do or can bring in our lives, but I also know the dangers.
The other focus area for me, when it comes to vulnerabilities while using the internet or these technologies is my specialisation in cybersecurity. I also do a lot of work in data protection and cybersecurity- making people aware of the vulnerabilities they face by using some of these technologies and what they can do in their businesses to avert this exposure.
Majorly because I represent businesses, but in other areas where we do a lot of cybersecurity awareness, it’s more of letting people know the dangers they pretty much face with their increased access and or use of technology, especially the internet.
Related to that, I’m sure you’re familiar with what’s happening in the other parts of the world, how do you think Uganda is catching up with the rest of the world in using and adopting technology? How do we compare?
In terms of technology, I would say 50/50. Why 50/50? At first, I was very, very optimistic, but then I found that there’s a big gap in our startups’s adoption and leveraging of the benefits that technology brings.
I’m involved in different spaces; innovation spaces. I work with different innovation hubs, I also work with the NSSF Hi-Innovator programme. So I’ve met so many innovators in the tech space and I feel that we’ve moved so many miles ahead, but at the same time, there are so many things that are still blocking us from scaling, especially the technologies or startups or businesses that are on the market. They’re still facing so many challenges, and those challenges, you could just break them down to poor business ethics, financial literacy adoption of technology etc. So we are struggling in terms of scaling.
But on individual levels, I feel there is a lot out there that we are not tapping into. You can be able to access the technologies, whatever technologies are on the market for free or at a minimal cost. Personally, am a digital nomad and I work and can work from anywhere. I have tried to look out for every technology on the market that can make my work much easier. So here I am in Uganda and I can use any platform that can be able to enhance pretty much the way I deliver legal services.
So I feel like Uganda, yes, we have access to these technologies, which has closed, so many gaps, but I also feel like so many people are still happy in their conservative spaces, and are not bothered by the technologies. Some people in their businesses don’t want to adopt the new technologies that are largely available. Some people are afraid of them. Some feel like they are expensive, yet actually, there are some which are so easy to get for almost anything⏤ marketing, sales etc. I find it’s so easy now to get anything and everything. There is simply a technology or platform to enhance the way you run your business in practically every way.
And specifically for the government, do you feel they are up to speed? It is important that to regulate and or deliver services in a tech environment, the government too, must catch up quickly. Is the government catching up? How does it compare with other governments you have seen?
I actually have to give credit to our government because I feel that so many of the government regulatory bodies are doing their best to go online and have their services online. In the legal sector, we have ECCMIS (Electronic Court Case Management Information System). It is a court management system, where lawyers file their documents online, get updates and even request an online hearing, unlike in the past when we started legal practice when you would have to go to court physically and line up in long queues.
I think the government is trying. Think about it. The Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) is a very, very big part of any person’s legal practice. Right? But now, most of their services are online. When we started legal practice, to carry out a simple service such as a company search, you’d have to go to the URSB physically. Now you just go online- you can register a company online; you can do so many things, update your company, make payments etc.
Then the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), to get a Tax Identification Number (TIN) back, seemed like it was rocket science. Now, to get registered for anything or to upgrade to anything- you just go to their portal. Of course, there are downtime issues, but I feel like the government of Uganda definitely is in the right direction in terms of upgrading and catching up with technology.
You come from a legal family, with quite some big names, including your late father. How did this influence you? Or did it in any way? Did you always want to be a lawyer?
I had always thought that my father had inspired me to be a lawyer, but I’ve had a lot of soul self-searching and discovered that yes, he mentored me into being a lawyer, but in terms of my wanting to do law, I think that came from somewhere else.
At one time was at a training with the Archbishop Tutu Fellowship Programme and we had this trainer, who really helped us to dig deep within ourselves to understand who we are and how we lead. One of the things that came out for me was that I have this something inside me that irritates me whenever I come across injustices. It’s nothing to do with my parents. It has nothing to do with my status. But I feel angry whenever there’s injustice. And I always yearned to do something about it.
So I feel this is the kind of inner me that has influenced my journey, and my legal calling, even before I studied law. Even now, as a lawyer, being in a community where there is a huge gap between the poor and the rich in any community keeps me unnerved. I guess this is why I am so much into community work. I just feel like some of these injustices could be done away with. It has nothing to do with law. But I’ve been like that since even before law school. I struggle to operate in a system or in a space where there’s injustice or unfairness. It’s an innate thing.
Your father broke so many records in the legal profession- a lawyer, Deputy Solicitor General, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, and subsequently laid the foundation of what is now MMAKS Advocates, one of the leading law firms in the country. Do you find this sometimes places on you a challenge to be like him or even surpass him?
I was very fortunate to have been mentored by a father who was in the legal profession. For the longest time, by the way, I never even knew that this gave me an advantage and greatly impacted me until I started teaching my children and learned that human beings are creatures of habit. We subconsciously follow the examples of the people we spend most of our time with. As such, I was introduced to legal circles at a very young age. I learned the etiquette of legal practice at a very young age but I didn’t know until I started homeschooling my children. I was like, oh, my goodness, these children are 90% of what they pick from their environment.
When I was in law school, even when I was in legal practice, at first, I felt like his shadow was so big, his shoes were so so big. He’s the kind of person who you’d never get an interview with. He never wanted to talk about himself. He was very a contented human being who never wanted any playful person around him.
But when I look back, I am like oh, my God, I can’t believe he did this all this. Of course, we read about him. When I later got into the legal profession, I felt like everyone always juxtaposes what you’re doing to him. It’s a very, very big, big, big, big load to carry.
But for me, I developed my strategy, after law school. I wanted to break free from his legacy, his shadow and build my own space. Be my own person. I just wanted to start on a plain sheet. Like if I wanted to approach a new client or go to a government office, I avoided invoking his name, even when I knew it could open doors. That’s it. I used to run away from actually his name because I didn’t want to be compared with him.
So one of the things that I think helped me was to get into like Rotary space because that wasn’t his space. He loved serving the community but in a different way. So I liked to go into spaces where I never found his name because, in the legal profession, it was overwhelming. So through getting to spaces where my father didn’t have many connections⏤ yes people knew him, but I didn’t feel like I was, I was trying to do what he did.
One of my escape routes was to do things that he was never interested in, such as the tech space. I believe if he woke up from his grave, he would be like- “what is this you are doing?” It has nothing connected to him. Eventually, I found my space because I had something unique to bring to the table. I had the value of understanding who I was, yeah, but truthfully, at first, it was a struggle.
Has your rise- in a largely patriarchal and male-dominated society and profession, been any more challenging? Do you sometimes feel like there are some spaces you would have gotten into, if you weren’t a woman? What lessons do you draw from all these experiences in here for fellow female lawyers on their journey up in the legal profession or any other profession?
When I was in law school, I thought there was a very big difference between men and women. I felt like, there was a lot of unfairness. But when I got into KATs, I realised that I was given the same opportunities as my male colleagues. In fact, it was more of how proactive you are as an individual lawyer.
I have never genuinely faced a situation whereby I’m given a different transaction, because I’m a woman. What I know is that the clients themselves, would struggle at first because I was a young, girl, and would be like, “What do you know”?
I feel like it’s still a fair comment because life is about experience. The more experience you have, the more confidence you have, and the more you’re able to deliver finer and excellent work. But in terms of my career path, I don’t feel like my growth was hindered because I was a female. But I’m also very aware, yes, it’s very male-dominated⏤ it’s actually not any more male-dominated in the junior arena, it is more male-dominated as you go to the top⏤ but there is so much more to one’s growth, than just reducing it to the gender gaps. In fact for me, the people; the wings that I have flown on; the wings that have really, really, really thrown me into spaces that even myself, I get shocked at, it’s men. I do a lot of work on the regional level; in global spaces, and when I think through it, it’s men who have led me in these spaces. It would be very unfair for me to say that I’ve been suffocated in the legal profession because I’m a woman.
I have had time to sit down and analyse why there are fewer women in legal practice at the top, and I personally believe, that it’s not because the men don’t support women. No. My analysis was that nature takes its natural course on women which has nothing to do with the male species. I’ll give you an example, before I had children, I was able to be office at six o’clock and leave after midnight. But also those were the days when we didn’t have technology. We used to have faxes. I’m a dinosaur. We would come and wait for the fax. Now, people have smartwatches, we get notifications that we have emails. or a meeting. It’s a completely different landscape. So I don’t really have to be in the office all the time to win.
Before I had children, my priorities, were not because the men in this space forced me to think like that, I felt like I had to be there for my family. As a primary caregiver of the humans, I have brought into the world, my brain just switched. It has nothing to do with men. It’s nothing external. It was my decision, at that point, that I could not leave home and leave a three-month-old baby. I needed to breastfeed my child. So it means I can’t be in the office at 06 am.
Appreciating this, got me rethinking all my biases and what I had been told. Because seriously, as a child, you grow up thinking the world is unfair to women⏤ and that’s not to say there are no places where women are dealt an unfair hand, but you just can’t reduce everything to that.
Doreen Byaruhanga joins dfcu Bank as Chief Corporate and Institutional Banking OfficerThat is why I am grateful for places like KATS. I felt like they understood my journey when I had to first care for my child. In fact, with my second child, it worsened that he had some complications- he had asthma. So it meant more care hours. It wasn’t because of my male colleagues. If for anything, because I’m still here, I feel like they supported me to go through that journey.
I feel that, apart from the unconscious bias it’s going to be unfair to me, to work in a male-dominated world, I later realised as women, we are purpose-driven. Naturally, women are nurturers, we tend to want spaces that are fair for all people, where people are thriving. So after some time, you start questioning even the kinds of transactions you’re working on. You start asking, what impact do they have?
Away from your professional brand and official titles, tell us about your other self. Hobbies, interests etc.
You remember I told you, why I am into fintech? I like the impact fintech has on society. Before when I was a junior lawyer, I would be like there’s an oil and gas project here and I would run there. I wasn’t thinking through it. Now, I want to work with clients where there is a journey; where there is a mutual relationship. I want to help you; I want to make sure that I am bringing value, I am strengthening you and you are also helping me differently. That’s the relationship I work towards. It makes me happy. When that is not defined, I will be like I’m sorry, this is not working for me. That’s it for me.
As a woman and as you grow older, you start asking, what is my purpose? What impact am I bringing to society? What value am I bringing to the world? What’s my value-add? It’s not about just doing work and going away and sleeping. No. What’s my impact? What’s at the other end? It can’t just be money. What’s my value addition to society, to the community and the world? Those things unsettle me.
I am the Uganda representative of a movement called Ecocivilisation and the Living Cities Earth. We’re trying to come up with a new civilisation for human beings. This space makes me happy. Why am I happy? Because we are going to great lengths to see how can human beings survive and thrive. We are trying to answer the question: In which other way, what other alternative ways can human beings survive? Instead of going to the pharmacy all the time, can we use food as medicine for example? Can we grow our food⏤ basically regenerative farming? These spaces make me happy. If you ask me, I like the fact that I can do that, and at the same time, be able to practice law. So the reason I am still in legal practice is because I am still able to contribute, in these other spaces. I can contribute to and serve my community, serve other human beings. If I didn’t have that, there is no way I would still be in legal practice.
You raise an interesting point- that yes, there are all these issues in gender gaps and gender discrimination, but in some cases, we need to be aware of and appreciate the gender differences. Do you sometimes feel this whole gender equality question is being overstretched? Are we paying too much attention to the girlchild, potentially to the detriment of the boychild?
That’s a very interesting question. First of all, I’m raising two boys and I feel like the space for the boy child is being narrowed down. It is being suffocated and it’s not only going on in Uganda, it’s a global problem. Of course, as a woman, I need to make sure that my children also grow up in a safe space. Sometimes you find there are spaces where women are genuinely not able to participate. I, actually struggle when I am called to participate in an initiative of any nature simply because I am a woman and not because of the value I am bringing to the table. I can’t be valuable only because I am a woman. That makes me feel undervalued. You may think you’re valuing me, but I feel undervalued. I want to be in a space where my value is not because I am a woman- whether on a panel, on a board or anything, but because there is much more value I am adding.
Yes, I feel in some spaces, the gender issues have been overstated and in some cases, the boychild is being is being thrown off and just left in space. Yes, there are historical injustices, but we need to have a balanced approach where we don’t risk pushing back the boy-child back to the olden days. We need to have a balance whereby both genders are taken care of because you can’t have one gender thriving at the expense of the other.
I mentor both men and women, girls and boys; and I am beginning to see the boychild beginning to suffer finding their space⏤ they are beginning to get afraid to speak up for fear of being called names. I seriously feel we need to find a balance. Otherwise, we are going to find ourselves in a situation whereby the boychild’s rights are completely at the bottom and the girlchild is up there also wondering, how did we get here? So, can we open our eyes to this crisis that we are unconsciously creating?
In Uganda, it’s not yet so bad, but internationally, people are committing suicide people are feeling undervalued and are engaging in very bizarre things because they don’t feel valued in society. I don’t want to open up a Pandora’s box, but all I’m saying is that can we wake up before it actually gets out of hand? I feel like there’s something wrong. How do you find a balance in all these things? I don’t think extremes help anyone. It could be religion, it could be whatever extremes; they don’t help anyone they don’t serve anyone at all.
Looking back at your 19-year journey at KATS and beyond, what would you say have been your key highlights
Yes, there are many facets of my career. But in the legal profession, the biggest highlight was to become a Partner, but that was 13 years ago. I achieve that quite early in my career- in just 6 years.
Then, in legal tech, one of the things that I will highlight is when we helped a client obtain the first license for a digital financial company, which was unheard of at the time. This was at a time when we had no digital finance regulations at all. Uganda as an economy was not ready for virtual financial institutions. But somehow, through a lot of lobbying with the government and at that time we were also lobbying for different laws in the sector, we were able to get a licence. So I feel like to me, in the tech space, that was a major highlight. That was 2018.
That was the first license from the Bank of Uganda. At the time everyone was bleak about digital finance. This was after two to three years of intense engagement with a regulator. It was intense. It was a global company. And yeah, for me, I felt like for my career in the legal tech space, that was a big, big highlight because it involved so much. There was a lot of due diligence to be done on the company. The central bank was not so certain, because it had a blockchain component, and the bank didn’t want to get into their blockchain space. But at the same time, they appreciated the platform and how it was moving money from different countries to Uganda. So we had to make the government and the regulator understand what blockchain was, and how all these cryptocurrencies work and operate, how they can split the company’s operations. It was complex, long, convoluted and very exhausting, but we got that.
In leadership, I think I was appointed, to the Archbishop Tutu Fellow, because this is something where you are not chosen because of your legal career, but it was because of the work I do, such as the mentorship platform, and all the other community projects that come with it, e.g the reading projects, projects that I do out of my career. That I was identified among 18 C-suite leaders on the continent was a key highlight. It was a very good, enlightening platform, to learn from so many people across the world.
Lastly, right now, I am the co-founder of something called Living Cities Earth. Here again, the highlight for me is being to be in this space and contributing to humanity, contributing to human beings. We focus on human beings right from their mother’s womb, and how can we contribute to their thriving holistically. What are those things we can do? It really brings a spark in my life. being connected in this network, with human beings all over the world concerned that there are challenges were are facing right now and joining hands and trying to find solutions.
Looking back at the legal profession over the years, what has changed, what is changing and what is the future likely to be like? What should the professionals who want to rise and shine be learning, unlearning and re-learning?
What has really changed⏤ I feel like the way we do things, I feel everything is very automated. I feel there are a lot of technologies that we can use as, as, as lawyers to enhance the way we do things and deliver services. I feel like there is more citizen access to justice in Uganda and the African continent because of technology. For example, with the ECCMIS system, I don’t have to, drive from Kabale or from Kidepo to come here and file documents, you can send them an email, you can file them online, you can make online payments. The landscape has changed. Our days of the telex and fax are long gone.
We have moved a lot from the physical and manual way of doing things to virtual courts. Right now, you can have a hearing, online. I mean, it’s different. Very, very, very, very different.
So if you ask me what we can do, we need to relearn a lot of things, because most of the things we were taught in law school, don’t even apply anymore. So what can a young lawyer or even an already practising lawyer do? We need to do a lot of unlearning the things that don’t serve us anymore. When you look at some of our laws, some are still stuck in that period, where they don’t serve us anymore. So can you, first of all, study the trends? Studying trends is very important. For example, the reason I got into tech was from studying trends and being able to see how technology was changing not just our profession but the entire world and then knowing there are going to be opportunities in there for a legal professional.
Reading the trends and knowing where we are going, is key. Right now everything is being affected by artificial intelligence. Everything, that we do. So learning about these technologies and how they work is key. Actually, the unique, value that I bring into the tech spaces is that I understand the technologies. I’m not just a lawyer providing legal services in the tech space. I understand, I learned about this, and I trained myself- online, there are so many free courses. You can learn so much about cybersecurity, data governance and much more. Things I didn’t learn in school, but I’ve taught myself. So if you know, that you weren’t taught these things in school and yet this is where the world is going, then you need to teach yourself.
I for example teach my children and we don’t follow any particular syllabus. But all the information they need is available. They learn mainly in an experience-based environment. They go online, they use chat GPT. And I’m also able to teach them to get like teachers to teach them what I want them to teach. They’re being taught by two software engineers- AI and robotics for computing. So to me, I thought the mainstream system was not going to deliver for me what I had wanted for my children, and I’m looking for this space, that information is there. And guess what online platforms are also there for these children where it’s free. There are many free academies with very good content.
I feel like a young lawyer right now if you feel like you don’t have the information, please go online and request whatever information you want, and you’d be surprised what comes up. You have to train yourself. Or you could go back to school and learn pretty much about the trends.
I recently attended a session yesterday from the Legal Innovation Zone in Australia, and then one of the speakers there said that what’s going to happen is that even our exams are going to change. Right now if you gave me an essay, I could ask Chat GPT to do me an essay. So now, the exam is going to be okay, this is a question that was given to Chat GPT, can you analyse it? What are the errors? Is there any kind of negligence etc? Which means that the mode and format are going to change, because how does it help me to give you an essay and then you just go and Chat GPT it?
Another key to anyone succeeding is having mentors. And they don’t have to be all from the legal space. I have been influenced by people from outside the legal profession such as Rotary who are at the peak of their success. I have had mentors in global tech leaders who have influenced me. So you should not only focus on just mentors within your field or only within the country.
What keeps you awake at night? What worries you?
What worries me is what I’ve just told you. Human beings are suffering. We are sick from, I guess as a consequence of our lifestyles⏤ overuse of technology, our heads and brains are overwhelmed, overwhelmed with social media, overwhelmed with the instant news etc. Some studies have suggested that our brains today, the information we consume in a day is information, people 300 years ago used to consume in 100 years. We are generally overwhelmed.
What unsettles me is there’s a younger generation which is going to struggle more. How can we make sure that the early childhood development of a human being is safe? That our children can be more creative and more curious, in a space where they’re not overwhelmed? How can we make sure that they eat good food and that they are not overmedicated? Children today are drowning in medicine yet there is alternative healing; nature-based healing such as forest bathing. Nature has its natural energy. I was telling you earlier that I cross Lake Victoria every time I have to come to the office. That is very therapeutic. Nature has simple tools that can help us thrive. If you ask me what keeps me awake, that’s what keeps me awake.
What can I do about it? It is the things I’m doing especially outside the legal profession⏤ Helping humans connect with nature with respect, kindness and love through working with https://www.ecocivilisation.eu/en/home/ and https://www.livingcities.earth/ ⏤ that help make me calm down.
Lastly, what inspires you? What are some of the key lessons you have learnt about life that keep you guided and focused? How do you stay sane in the fast lane?
What inspires me? I think for me, I want to constantly contribute to the wellness of a human being, in whatever space. I mean, like I told you earlier, right now, even in my legal space, if I’m working with a client, the first thing I ask is how can I help you be better? How can I help you grow? If it is a business, I ask them, how can I work with you to help your business thrive? How can I contribute?
How can I create a space that is healthy for everyone to live in; a space which is fair for everyone? Any space that am contributing to, that’s what I want to see. Am I contributing towards creating a safe space for every human being to thrive? So, every time I wake up in the morning, I ask myself, how can I push that?
But I also to go on hikes. I love adventure. I love to go out in the mountains. Of course, as I grow older, I know that my body is one of my biggest assets, so putting it in shape; and exercising so that I can be able to hike more is key. I’ve hiked different mountains. Last year I hiked Elgon, although I was only able to go to the base camp because I got altitude sick. I have reached the top of Mount Everest on a small flight tour of the Himalayas. It is my most beautiful and scary adventure so far.
As long as I’m in nature, I am good- canoeing, fishing, hiking, being in forests etc.. Anything to do with nature makes me deeply happy.