Called to the bench: here are the candidates

Last week, President Yoweri Museveni appointed a total of 28 new judges to fill vacant positions in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and High Court. However, the appointments are subject to parliamentary approval and the names have been forwarded to the Speaker of Parliament for vetting, which started on Tuesday. Ephraim Kasozi and Juliet Kigongo look at who the nominated judges are.

Prof. Lillian Tibatemwa
She is the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Makerere University, in charge of Academic Affairs. She is an Associate Professor of Law holding a PhD from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, a Masters’ Degree of Law specialising in Commercial Law from Bristol (U.K) and a Bachelors’ Degree in Law from Makerere University.
Prof. Tibatemwa is also an advocate in the Courts of Judicature and is a pioneer in several academic endeavours.
She was the first Ugandan woman to qualify for a PhD in Law and the first woman to be promoted to the level of an Associate Professorship of Law at Makerere University.
The university don was the first female Deputy Dean of Makerere’s Faculty of Law and was the first woman to become Deputy Vice Chancellor at Makerere University.

Justice Egonda Ntende
He has been the Chief Justice of Seychelles since August 2009 to date and was sworn in at the State House in the capital city, Victoria.
Prior to the position, Justice Ntende served as Acting Justice of the Supreme Court of Uganda. He was also involved in the setting up of an independent judiciary in East Timor, where he served as a judge of the Court of Appeal.
He lectured Law at Makerere University and was the chairperson of the Law Reporting Committee of the Judiciary in Uganda. He also has extensive experience in dealing with matters of drug trafficking while working as a judge in the United Nations Mission in Kosovo.

Justice Eldard Mwangusya
He is the Head of the Civil Division of the High Court. Justice Mwangusya formerly worked as State Attorney in the Ministry of Justice where he rose through the ranks to the level of Senior Principal State attorney until he was appointed a judge of the High Court.

Margaret Tibulya
She is a Registrar of the High Court. Before being promoted to the rank of the registrar, Ms Tibulya who completed the law school at Makerere in the 1980s, was Chief Magistrate before her promotion.

Richard Butera
He has been the Director of Public Prosecutions since 1995. Before his appointment as DPP, Mr Buteera worked as Chief Registrar of the Courts of Judicature. He studied from Makerere University and University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. He also served as Grade One Magistrate in the 1980s, then chief magistrate in the 1990s in the courts of Judicature.

Elizabeth Jane Alividza
She completed law school at Makerere in the 1980s and she has been a registrar. Ms Alividza served as magistrate and chief magistrate.

Damalie Nantudde Lwanga
She is the Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). Ms Lwanga has worked at the directorate where she rose through various ranks.

Alexandra Rugadya Nkonge,
He is the head of department/Commissioner for Law Revision at the Uganda Law Reform Commission. He is lawyer and an advocate with specialised training in the legislative drafting.
He joined the Commission in 2002 the Electoral Commission where he worked as the head of the Legal and Public Relations department. He worked as a researcher collecting views from citizens during the Constitution making exercise. He was thereafter appointed to the Technical Committee that drafted the current Constitution.

Henrietta Wolayo,
She studied Law at Makerere University and did post graduate studies in Women’s Law, University of Zimbabwe. She is one of the long serving registrars at the Judiciary.

Lady Justice Mary Stella Arach-Amoko
She is the Deputy Principal Judge of the East African Court of Justice (EACJ). Justice Amoko formerly headed the Commercial Division of the High Court before being appointed to the Court of Appeal and Constitutional Court where she has been serving for the last five years. She formerly worked as a State Attorney in the Attorney General’s Chambers.

Justice Faith Mwondha
She is the resident judge of the Nakawa High Court Central Circuit. She served as a delegate of the Constituent Assembly that formulated the 1995 Constitution.
Before that Mwondha served as Chief Magistrate of Jinja before she was appointed to the High Court.
She also worked as the Inspector General of Government (IGG) before returning to the judiciary.