Judiciary is disabled - Ogoola
What you need to know:
Unsustainable. Judicial Service Commission head says for more than a year the Judiciary has been operating without the head and for two years without a deputy.
PARLIAMENT.
The head of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), Mr James Ogoola, yesterday said the Judiciary is a “disabled” institution which has struggled along without a leader for more than one year.
Mr Ogoola, himself a retired principal judge, told MPs that this is “unacceptable” situation has reached a level where the third arm of government is unable to effectively function.
Lawmakers on the House Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs yesterday agreed with Mr Ogoola’s description of what they said is an “undesirable situation” that has “somehow” hindered delivery of justice.
Speaking about the President’s continued failure to appoint a substantive Chief Justice (CJ), Mr Ogoola described Justice Steven Kavuma, who is holding fort in the informal capacity of acting chief justice as “somebody” in the office. He said the Constitution does not provide for the position of ‘acting CJ’.
The Daily Monitor was not able to speak to Justice Kavuma who was reported busy in court yesterday by his personal assistant, Mr Daniel Lubowa.
Unsustainable
“For over a year, [the] Judiciary has been operating without the head and for two years without a deputy,” Mr Ogoola said. “This is totally unsustainable because the State in any definition cannot by any stretch of imagination be expected to function without head.”
Mr Ogoola explained how the JSC had recommended a person whose details he did not reveal, to replace retired Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki but was accepted by the President, who under the Constitution appoints judicial officers at that level with the approval and recommendation of both Parliament and JSC, respectively.
He said the JSC acted knowing that the incumbent head was about to leave. “We recommended a candidate to the appointing authority but he did not take our recommendation and it’s his right.
These are now matters before court and we will not interrupt, we leave the decision to the Constitutional Court to give us the answer,” Mr Ogoola said,
The attempted re-appointment of Mr Odoki as Chief Justice is the subject of a Constitutional Court petition contesting its legality.
Minister for the Presidency Frank Tumwebaze yesterday suggested that it was the JSC that advised the President that it was possible to appoint retired judges back on contract.
On the re-appointing of Mr Odoki, Mr Tumwebaze said, “the President never dreamt it”, adding that “the President is a person who consults widely and he respects the opinions of others.” He said the Attorney General advised the President on the matter.
“If now they say it was not right to recommend the re-appointment of the former Chief Justice, the President will have to reconsider his decisions and do so without being stampeded... In any case this matter is already before court.”
Yesterday, the permanent secretary at the JSC, Mr Kagole Kivumbi said: “We cleared the re-appointment of Justice Odoki and three others (John Wilson Tsekooko, Christine Kitumba and Galdino Okello) as acting justices of the Supreme Court.
For Odoki as Acting Chief Justice I decline to comment because the matter is before court.”
President Museveni’s decision to direct the JSC to extend Mr Odoki’s contract by two years kicked up a storm after the Uganda Law Society, civil society activists and some MPs described it as “unconstitutional”.
Weeks ago, the ULS gave the government 90 days within which to resolve the Chief Justice matter or face the prospect of a sit-down strike by the law fraternity.
Retired Supreme Court Justice, Prof George Kanyeihamba, yesterday agreed with Mr Ogoola’s comments.
Lonely
“[The] Judiciary is a very much disabled institution and I am glad that JSC has come out openly. This institution needs a substantive leader because it’s lonely and cannot work normally. The position of an acting deputy CJ is unconstitutional and what’s happening is terrible.”
Principal Judge Yorokamu Bamwine yesterday said: “If Parliament [and JSC] has said so (that Justice Kavuma is acting as CJ in breach of the Constitution and that the Judiciary is disabled), I take it that their opinion is well researched. There is no reason for me to contradict it.”
The MPs, at the prompting of Shadow Attorney General Abdu Katuntu, resolved to meet the President over the matter.
Odoki’s retirement
Mr Benjamin Odoki, who had served as Chief Justice for 12 years, reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 years in March last year. He also served out a three-month extension under contract ending in June 2013.