Justice Kavuma, 5 others set to retire
What you need to know:
Career. Reliable information shows Justice Kavuma will retire on September 29 next year after a 42-year legal and political career
KAMPALA.
Deputy Chief Justice Steven Kavuma is among the
between now and September next year, Daily Monitor has reliably established.
Reliable information obtained by this newspaper shows Justice Kavuma, also the deputy Chief Justice and head of the Court of Appeal, will retire on September 29 next year after a 42-year legal and political career.
The Constitution requires a judge of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal, which also sits as the Constitutional Court, to retire at 70 years while a judge of the High Court retires upon turning 65 years.
Other judges set to retire are Augustine Nshimye, judge of the Supreme Court who is set to retire in December this year and Justice Akiiki-Kiiza (High Court) who is supposed to have retired on June 3 this year, according to information obtained by this newspaper.
Others set to retire next year include Justice Ezekiel Muhanguzi (judge of the International Crimes Division of the High Court) and Justice Elizabeth Nahamya also from the International Crimes Division of the High Court. They are both set to retire in February 2017. Justice Jotham Tumwesigye (Supreme Court ) will retire in August next year.
In order to avoid a vacuum in the courts, the
which recruits and disciplines judicial officers is already set to replace the retiring judges.
“It’s up to the discretion of the Commission to call for fresh applications or pick from the pool of old applications and get the suitable candidates to fill the gaps,” Mr Kagole Kivumbi, the secretary to the Judicial Service Commission, told this newspaper by telephone.
The newly appointed JSC headed by Justice Benjamin Kabiito is waiting for swearing-in to start its work. Commenting on the same issue of the soon-to-be vacant positions in the Judiciary, the Chief Registrar of Courts of Judicature, Mr Paul Gadenya, called for expeditious conclusion of the new JSC appointments to help address the upcoming vacant posts.
Mr Gadenya pointed out that the post of deputy Chief Justice is a big job that needs sufficient time to search for a competent candidate to fill it.
“This means the recruitment process must start early enough to avoid a crisis,” Mr Gadenya told this newspaper at his chambers in Kampala last Friday.
In the recent past, due to unpreparedness of the appointing authority, the judiciary went for two years without a substantive Chief Justice following the controversial retirement of Benjamin Odoki, a scenario that almost created a constitutional crisis in the country.
The President is the appointing authority on judges but with approval of Parliament. Justice Kavuma acted as the Chief Justice as well as acting deputy Chief Justice during the two years.
Justice Kavuma’s judicial career has been characterised with issuing of
especially against
.
On June 16, 2016, former presidential candidate and opposition kingpin of the Forum for Democratic Change party, Dr Kizza Besigye, petitioned the Judicial Service Commission, saying he is not fit to be a judge of the Court of Appeal/Constitutional Court.
Dr
of the government and instead of doing judicial work, he is mostly engaged in bidding for President Museveni and the NRM government.
At one time, Dr Besigye also filed a complaint against Justice Kavuma for similar reasons before
. Dr Besigye accused Justice Kavuma of issuing a one-sided order in April this year stopping a magistrate’s court in Kasangati from making a ruling on whether his confinement at his own residence by police was illegal.
Who is Justice Steven B.K Kavuma
, 67, was born on September 29, 1948 in Wakiso District. At the time of his appointment, he was the acting Chief Justice and deputy Chief Justice, both positions he held for about two years. Justice Kavuma began his judicial career in 1975 when he joined the Ministry of Justice as a State Attorney in the Attorney General Chambers. He later joined the legal department of the National Insurance Corporation where he rose to the position of corporation secretary.
In 1977, Kavuma was admitted to the Bar and enrolled as an advocate of the Court of Judicature. In 1981, he left government service and went into private practice under the trading name of Kavuma and Company Advocates which firm later became Kavuma, Katureebe & Company Advocates.
In 1988, he was appointed deputy Minister of Finance in Charge of Custodian Board and became a member of the National Resistance Council (NRC, interim Parliament under the NRM), representing Kyadondo County. When the NRC was expanded in 1989, he was elected NRC Member for Kyadondo County and NEC Member for Mpigi District.
In 1994, he was elected a Constituent Assembly Delegate for Kyadondo South and was later appointed Minister of State for Justice and Constitutional Affairs. In 1996 he was elected to Parliament representing Kyadondo South and in 1998 he was appointed Minister of State for Defence.
Who is
He was also elevated to the Supreme Court in September 2014 from the Court of Appeal/Constitutional Court where he had served since his appointment in 2008.
Justice Nshimye previously served as legislator and minister before joining the bench. He is also one of the founding members of the ruling party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM). As a legislator, he served as a member of the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee.
He started his career as senior clerical officer in 1967. In 1986, he was appointed deputy chief registrar, a post he held for two years before joining private practice. In 2008, he was appointed a Justice of the Court of Appeal.
In 2010, he served as acting Justice of the Supreme Court. Justice Nshimye is the vice chairperson of the Judicial Integrity Committee. He is also a member of the Judicial Performance Enhancement Committee. He is currently the Inspector of Courts, an arm of the Judiciary that monitors and enforces ethics among judicial officers.
Who is
He was once the Inspector General of Government (IGG) in early 2000s before he was appointed to the highest court in the land in 2009. Despite playing the current role of a Supreme Court judge, Justice Tumwesigye took on the extra role of heading the Judicial Integrity Committee, a committee that inspects judicial officers over ethical and integrity matters.
Currently, besides being a justice of the Supreme Court, he is a member of the Judicial Service Commission, a position he took over from Chief Bart Katureebe who was elevated to the helm of the Judiciary a year ago. Before joining the Supreme Court, Justice Tumwesigye was the chairman of the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration.
However, his appointment to this position was strongly challenged by FDC’s Dr Besigye who accused him of being a cadre of President Museveni and the ruling NRM party. Justice Tumwesigye graduated from Makerere University law school in 1974.
Who is Justice
Justice Muhanguzi began his legal career in 1977 when he was employed as a state attorney in the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). After three years of service, he left and joined private legal practice up to 2004 when he was appointed a judge of the High Court. He was immediately posted to Mbale High Court as a resident judge. He is currently the lead judge in the trial of Muslim leaders accused of assassinations of other rival Muslim clerics.