Manifesto implementation: Justice ministry shares success, misses

Ministry composition
The Ministry falls under the Justice Law and Order Sector (JLOS) whose mandate is to administer justice, maintain law and order and promote the observance of human rights. The institutions that are allied to the Ministry for Policy guidance are 
1.    Uganda Law Reform Commission 
2.    Electoral Commission
3.    Uganda Human Rights Commission 
4.    Law Development Centre 
5.    Uganda Registration Services Bureau 
6.    Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions 
7.    Judicial Service Commission 
Manifesto pledges for 2016-2021
Improving access to justice
Our resolve is to take justice nearer to the people and we will undertake the following: 

• Establish formal courts at the sub-county level. Every sub county has an LCIII Court. And 332 Grade1 Magestrate Courts that are spread across all the districts. There are 86 gazette Chief Magistrate Courts out of 135 districts.
• Pioneer implementation of mobile courts. These are being piloted primarily in refugee settlements
• Expand small claims procedure courts to all districts. This has been rolled out to all Chief Magistrates Courts. 
• Increase the High Court circuits from the current 13 to 20. The number of High Court Circuits gazatted increased from 13 to 20 following the demarcation of Nakawa High Court Circuit, Mbarara High Court Circuit, Jinja High Court Circuit, Mbale High Court Circuit and Gulu High Court Circuits, which were too wide and diverse. 
• This led to the realization of the Manifesto commitment creating additional nine High Court Circuits including Mukono, Mpigi, Mubende, Iganga, Luwero, Hoima, Rukungiri, Moroto and Tororo. However, out of 20 gazzetted High Circuits, 14 are operational. 
• Appoint more judicial officers and improve on their conditions of service. Judicial officers at all levels have been recruited on replacement basis. Vacancies in the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal have been filled. The President appointed a total of 18 Justices and Judges to the Supreme Court (3), Court of Appeal (3) and the High Court (12). Eleven Judges were appointed on replacement basis while seven (7) Judges were newly appointed. As a result, the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal are fully constituted. The overall staffing levels have increased to 58 Judges of High Court, 46 Registrars, 47 Chief Magistrates, 190 Grade 1 Magistrates and 31 Grade 2 Magistrates. 
• Invest in technology to improve the efficiency of judicial officers: Government commitment and appreciation of automation of Judiciary business processes remained evident as indicated in the growing budget for ICT from Shs2b in FY 2015/16 to Shs6b. Automation is envisaged to minimize real and perceived corruption in the Judiciary by limiting staff physical interaction with clients; handling of physical files as well as incidence of loss of files; reduction of transaction costs among others. Key implementation highlights include;

• Electronic Court Case Management Information System (ECCMIS); An upgrade of the current Court Case Administrative System (CCAS) envisaged to stir automation of the Judiciary, track all aspects of the case life cycle from initial filing through disposition and appeal for each case type in all courts of the Uganda court system. The anticipated ECCMIS significantly contributes to government increasing efforts of ensuring transparent court processes, improved performance of the Judiciary and in the fight against corruption. 
• Government through the ECCMIS will make justice accessible to the citizens through online services for case filing and payments, automated reminders and free online access to summons and judgments, as well as expeditious disposition of cases and reduction of case backlog. 
• The Judiciary performance enhancement tool; A tool designed to adopt a 360-degrees evaluation approach was launched in January 2019 and is being piloted for full roll out/ coverage. The tool is expected to increase judicial officers’ performance levels, facilitate performance monitoring and evaluation, and to inform the Judiciary reward policy. 
• The evaluation tool is based on performance standards and measures pegged on accessibility, timeliness, staff quality and levels of integrity. It also employs a weighting system for each category of judicial work.
• Video Conferencing Facility; A facility that is applied in real time between Buganda Road Chief Magistrates Court and Luzira Maximum Prison. This development not only ease business between court rooms and prisons but improves convenience of the Judicial system aiding mentioning of cases, providing for seamless sharing of evidence and presentations, inmate-security, client satisfaction, elimination of case backlog and reduced wastage of scarce Government resources among others. 
• Build regional centres for the Court of Appeal: Court of Appeal judicial services have been decenteralised through circuits of Gulu, Mbale, Fort Portal, Jinja and Mbarara. However, the implementation of process has been limited by inadequate resources to secure premises, recruitment judicial officers and non-Judicial officers for court operations.
• Make every district a magisterial area with a Chief Magistrate: Government in effort to bring judicial services closer to Ugandan issued a statutory instrument in 2017 through the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs in fulfillment of the commitment to make every district a magisterial area. As a result an additional 44 of the required 74 chief magisterial areas were created bringing the total number of chief magisterial to 82 from 38 representing 73% of targeted districts at the time. This development notwithstanding the need to bring judicial services closer to Ugandans remains a challenge since the 44 created CMs remain limited in operational due to limited judicial officers (Chief magistrates). 

• Appoint /hire acting Judges on short-term basis to reduce the: During this period, three judges of the Supreme Court and one justice of Court of Appeal have been appointed on short term basis. 
• Where applicable expand the use of alternative dispute: The Judiciary has progressed in the use of other dispute resolution mechanisms in the administration of justice that are efficient and accessible, faster and cheaper. The Judiciary focuses on the practices like mediation and plea bargaining. 

A total number of 14 High Courts Circuits out of the targeted 20 are applying Plea Bargaining which translates to 70% coverage, 70% of the targeted High court Circuit and the Court of Appeal are applying Mediation and 60 Chief Magistrates Courts out of 82 are applying Small Claims Procedure translating to 73% coverage. 

Unmet targets

• Build regional centres for the Court of Appeal: Limited resources. The Judiciary requires Shs.17.2bn for the construction of the five regional centres of Court of Appeal. 
• Make very district a magisterial area with a Chief Magistrate 
• Appoint/hire Judges on short-term basis to reduce backlog: Lack of supporting legal and regulatory framework
• Operationalise the land tribunal system: The Judiciary does not have the mandate to operationalise the land tribunal system. 
• Improving Access to Justice. Strengthening the legal institutional frameworks. The Government will jealously protect the independence of the Judiciary and other institutions involved in the administration of justice by prioritising their financing and staffing in order to ensure their smooth operation and growth operatinalised. 
• Funding: In FY 2016/17, the eight institutions were receiving a total budget of Shs 300b. This has since doubled to over Shs650b in FY 2019/20. 

Challenges

• In the FY 2018/2019 the Commission did not receive any funding for the planned activities and at the time of budgeting for the FY 2019/20, the Commission’s budget was funded up to only Shs141b representing 31.66% of the required funding for the first two phases.  This hampered implementation of planned activities such as timely procurement of specialised ICT equipment and systems and elections for Special Interest Groups (SIGs) councils/committees from village to national level.
• The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic: The Electoral Commission’s planned commencement of nominations and elections for SIGs (Old Persons, Youth, PWDs, and Workers) did not take place as planned on 6th April 2020.  
• Creation of new units without increase in budgets: Government has been creating new districts and Administrative units every year but these have not accompanied by corresponding increase in the wage and recurrent operational budget components of the Commission.
• Continue to compensate those who lost cattle and other properties during insurgencies
• We have victims of the insurgency in the Northern, Eastern and West Nile regions who deserve to be compensated for livestock lost. However, before payment, a comprehensive verification, validation and due diligence based on bio-data should be concluded to ensure that genuine beneficiaries are compensated. In Acholi region, verification and validation were done and the exercise will be concluded with a final due diligence. In Lango and Teso sub regions, verification of claimants was done and a validation will conclude the exercise. We are therefore on track to have the victims compensated starting with FY 2020/21.
• Conclusion of the war claims: The conclusion of the compensation of war claimants remains uncompleted since verification based on bio-data is yet to be concluded.

This story is sponsored by the Government of Uganda.