Spat between Judiciary, Land probe healthy
Justice Catherine Bamugemereire last week touched off a spat between the Judiciary and the Commission of Inquiry into Land Matters that she chairs by accusing some judges of making questionable judgments on land matters.
Ms Bamugemereire, herself a judge of the Court of Appeal, invited uproar from the leadership of the Judiciary and some members of the legal fraternity who accused her of, among other things, playing to the gallery and addressing the matter in “a wrong forum”.
The Judiciary argues that even if a judge errs in his/her judgment in a land matter, the Judiciary has a number of layers and the aggrieved party has an opportunity to appeal to a higher court. Some have argued that it is wrong for a judge to attack fellow judges in the media, among other arguments.
Whereas we appreciate the concerns that the people who have responded to Ms Bamugemereire’s comments have raised, we also note that there have been a good number of land matters, and indeed many others, which the Judiciary has not handled to the satisfaction of all the parties concerned.
On June 1, 2014, for instance, this newspaper told a story of a resident of Kitagobwa Village in Butambala District who had been embroiled in a court process over a kibanja for a long time. It was published under the headline “Tale of a 7-year fight with government officials over land”.
The man involved in the case was awaiting judgment in a civil suit involving that land. The wait had already been very long. We called him back this week and we discovered he had waited for the judgment for too long and has since made peace with his reality. He was fighting for a 7-acre kibanja with a senior army officer.
This man has not featured before Ms Bamugemereire’s land probe, but a number of such people have come forward and their sad stories have been told over the many months the inquiry has been ongoing. Many more have not appeared before the commission and don’t have a lot of hope that the Judiciary will help them get justice in their pursuit of their interests in the land they are fighting for.
Whatever the language Ms Bamugemereire used, and whether or not anyone may think she used the right forum or was speaking for the many Ugandans looking for justice on land matters, the facts are staring us in the face.
The Judiciary has to be made to work for all Ugandans, especially the poor and powerless.
