Highs, lows of Katureebe’s five years as Chief Justice

Today marks the last day in office for Chief Justice Bart Katureebe as he clocks the retirement age of 70 years.
Justice Katureebe has held the fourth most important position in the country since his appointment in March 2015.
He is one of the few Ugandans to have served in all the three arms of the government; Executive, Legislature and Judiciary. He served as minister in various dockets, including Foreign Affairs, Justice/Attorney General and Health. He also represented the people of Bunyaruguru County in the Constituent Assembly in 1994.

Early this week, in an interview, Justice Katureebe vowed not to stay on. He revealed that on Monday next week, he will hand over office to either his deputy, Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo, or the current in-charge of Supreme Court, Justice Esther Kisaakye.

In his 45-year legal career, Justice Katureebe has had his name onto three Supreme Court judgments.
He was part of the justices who upheld President Museveni’s victory in the 2006 and 2016 election petitions.
He was part of the judges that in a 4:3 majority ruling upheld the scrapping of the presidential age limit clauses in the Constitution.

Digitisation of courts
It was during Justice Katureebe’s reign that the Judiciary installed a video conferencing system at Buganda Road Chief Magistrate’s Court and at Luzira maximum security prison to facilitate the hearing of some cases where a suspect does not physically appear before court. The innovation is aimed at reducing on costs of transportation of inmates from prison to court and also reduce the security risks involved.

Also during his reign, the Judiciary started installing the Electronic Court Case Management Information System (ECCMIS), an innovation that is aimed at helping litigants to easily access court services by reducing corruption.
It is also during Justice Katureebe’s tenure that the Judiciary embarked on the construction of a seven-storied twin tower that will house the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal. The building, will cost about Shs63.9b, was started last year and is expected to be completed in two years’ time. The building will save the Judiciary Shs6b in rent annually.

War against corruption
Despite the Judiciary being ranked among the four most corrupt institutions by various anti-corruption indexes, the outgoing head of the Judiciary, during his tenure, instituted a committee to look into the corruption allegations that saw seven staff implicated.
During a countrywide tour after he took over office five years ago, Justice Katureebe said his main motive was to retire when there is some degree of ‘public confidence’ in the Judiciary.

Salary enhancement
Justice Katureebe also successfully lobbied government to increase the monthly salary of judicial officers. Salaries of all judicial officers have since been doubled, with a High Court judge earning a monthly salary of Shs23m, up from Shs17.55m.

Judiciary welfare
Justice Katureebe can also retire a happy man following the recent passing of the Administration of the Judiciary Bill. The Bill, once assented to by the President, will, among others, see the Chief Justice and his deputy retire with 100 per cent of their monthly salary. The rest of the judicial officers would retire with at least 80 per cent of their monthly salary. The new law is also aimed at making the Judiciary independent and self-accounting.

Challenges
However, Justice Katureebe’s reign has been blighted by several court raids by armed security officers. One of them happened at Makindye Chief Magistrates Court in 2016 by people believed to be supporters of Gen Kale Kayihura, then the Inspector General of Police. Gen Kayihura and other top police officers were being accused of torturing supporters of Opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye. There were also several re-arrests of suspects at court premises, including those in the murder of former police spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi.

The outgoing Chief Justice’s efforts to combat the huge case backlog has not yielded much. As of January, there were 146,994 pending cases in the Judiciary.
Just like his predecessors, Justice Katureebe did not stamp out corruption in the temple of justice. During his reign, the Judiciary was still ranked among the top four corrupt government institutions in the country.

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