Ask Museveni for more judges, residents told

Masaka. Principal Judge Yorokamu Bamwine has told Ugandans who want the delivery of justice expedited to use the forthcoming presidential elections to demand more judges from President Museveni.
Justice Bamwine, who heads the High Court and monitors performance of judicial officers, asked citizens not to shift the blame onto the Judiciary which, he said, has no powers to appoint new judges.
He was responding to a question put to him by a Masaka resident only identified as Katumba as to why the Judiciary keeps lamenting about not having enough judges yet universities graduate lawyers annually. The backlog of court cases stands at 430.
Mr Bamwine launched the plea bargain programme in the Masaka area on Friday, aimed at reducing the case backlog.
In his response, Justice Bamwine explained that the role of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) is to identify suitable candidates and forward them to the President for appointment but not to push the President to appoint them.
Justice Bamwine called upon Masaka residents to embrace the plea bargain system, saying it is the only way to combat the alarming case backlog.
He added that under the system, there are no scenarios of getting a judgment based on a judge’s emotions since the sentence is negotiated among three parties unlike in the old traditional system where it’s only the judge who has the discretion to hand out any sentence the judge feels is suitable.

New justice system
Plea bargain programme is a new justice system in which an agreement is entered in a criminal case between the prosecutor, the accused person and victim whereby the accused agrees to plead guilty to a particular charge in return for a lesser sentence or charge.
So far, the Judiciary has rolled out the programme in the High Court circuits of Nakawa, Mukono, Mbarara and Masaka.

[email protected]