Judiciary to get 30 more judges
Ruling. The panel of Supreme Court judges led by Chief Judge Bart Katurebe (5th left) during the hearing of the presidential election petition filed by former presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi in 2016. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
- According to Article 142 of the Constitution, it is the President, acting on the advice of the Judicial Service Commission, who appoints judges.
For one to be considered for appointment as a judge they must have practised as advocates for at least 10 years
They serve until they are between 65 and 70 years old (Article 144).
Kampala. The Ministry of Justice is planning to increase the number of judges from 52 to 82 to address case backlog, Parliament has said.
In his communication yesterday, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Jacob Oulanyah, said the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Maj Gen Kahinda Otafiire, will present a motion in relation to the number of judges.
According to the Case Backlog Reduction Committee, there were 155,400 cases as of January 2017.
During a validation meeting for judges in April 2017, Justice Lawrence Gidudu, the head of the Anti-Corruption Division of the High Court, is quoted as saying even if the number of judges increased without setting a performance tool, case backlog would remain a problem.
READ:
Supreme Court faces shortage of judges to hear cases JSC
Justice Benjamin Kabiito says the predicament has tied the hands of the five justices who were elevated and cannot preside over cases arising from the Court of Appeal that they had previously presided over
Concerns
“If we manage courts in a business manner, where we have an eye on costs and manipulation of inputs over outputs, we shall continue singing case backlog,” Justice Gidudu said.
Justice Kenneth Kakuru of Court of Appeal/Constitutional Court, during the meeting reportedly blamed the situation on judges who do not work.
“The ones who work are punished. Somebody is in Criminal Division and finishes his entire backlog and somebody in Civil has done nothing. The one in Criminal is transferred to Civil to deal with the backlog. The one who created the backlog is transferred to the division where the backlog was cleared and now creates a new backlog,” Justice Kakuru reportedly said.
