President should fill critical vacant positions in government
It is disheartening to note that a month after the exit of the Chief Justice of Uganda, a replacement is yet to be appointed by President Museveni.
While the law does not stipulate the time lines within which particular offices ought to be filled, the issue has become a big hindrance to service delivery in the country.
Another case in point here is the office of the chairperson of the Uganda Human Rights Commission that has been without a head from November 20, 2019 when former head Meddie Kaggwa died suddenly in Kampala.
The office of the Inspector General of Government fell vacant with the appointment of Justice Irene Mulyagonja to the Court of Appeal.
In the past, the office of the Inspectorate of Government has faced challenges where individuals have successfully petitioned the courts of law to have matters thrown out because of lack of a leadership code tribunal and lack of a substantively appointed IGG holding the office.
The other challenge this lack of substantive appointments presents, is the officers acting in these positions have no guarantee that they will be confirmed to these positions.
This makes it difficult tomake decisions as those officials in acting capacities cannot stamp their authority or roll out their agendas as things tend to change quite fast in Uganda.
Prior to the appointment of the Chief Justice in 2015, the office had been under the custodianship of Justice Steven Kavuma, who was in acting capacity, both as Chief Justice and also as Deputy Chief Justice.
Justice Bart Katureebe’s predecessor, Justice Benjamin Odoki, had left the position after attaining the retirement age in 2013.
At the Kampala Capital City Authority, Dorothy Kisaka has only recently been nominated to replace Jennifer Musisi, who resigned her position in December 2018 as the executive director.
The authority has been under the care of Mr Andrew Kitaka, who has been acting as executive director from December 2018 .
The trend of the President taking too long to fill positions that fall vacant is an afront to the rule of law, especially for those offices that are a creation of the Constitution. It is something that ought to be reviewed, and possibly corrected to reduce the number of offices that need presidential appointment.
Towards the end of Justice Katureebe’s tenure, notice was shared, the expectation would have been that a new Chief Justice would have been named sooner than it has taken.
The delay in this announcement could set in motion a series of events that include lobbying from various individuals.
While there is no crisis yet, it points to a bigger problem. The lack of strong institutions to run government as everything has to wait for the person of the President.
Uganda has a number of legal minds that can fill all these offices, especially the Human Rights Commission, IGG and the Chief Justice.
Is it really possible that we do not have credible individuals to fill these offices?
Parliament ought to review the appointments processes and make it mandatory for the President to appoint officers to critical offices such as the IGG, Chief Justice, at least 3 months before expiry of the current term.
Ms Kagaba is the executive director of the Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda.
