Murder, defilement top Court of Appeal session in Mbale

Murder and defilement cases top the list of cases to be handled by the Court of Appeal session that is currently sitting in Mbale District.

Of the 47 appeals on the list, 25 are against the conviction of murder, 13 against aggravated defilement, five against aggravated robbery, two against manslaughter and two against rape.

Justice Helen Oburah will lead a panel of three justices of the Court of Appeal, whose session was launched yesterday by Deputy Chief Justice Richard Buteera.

The other justices on the panel are Catherine Bamugemereire and Christopher Madrama.

In his remarks, Justice Buteera said delays in the delivery of justice is an injustice to the population.

“So, as Judiciary, we are trying our best to reduce the delays at every level in the short, medium and long term. For the short term, we may look at increasing the sessions for the High Court,” he said.

He added that the Judiciary is set to increase the number of justices of the Court of Appeal from the current 15 to 56.

The Deputy Chief Justice said they are also setting up regional Court of Appeal centres. He said the centres in Gulu and Mbarara will soon be operational.

 “We think with these regional centres, the Court of Appeal cases can be disposed of quicker than now,” he said, adding that more branches will be opened in Fort Portal, Arua, Soroti, Mbale, Jinja and Masaka.

Justice Buteera also said the number of judges of the High Court will be increased to about 150 and they hope to also increase the number of magistrates.

He said this will solve delays in the handling of cases.

“We want to ensure that there is a Chief Magistrate per district and a Grade One Magistrate per county and as we speak now, the number of Magistrate Grade Ones has grown from less than 100 to 300,” he said.

Senior Resident Judge Godfrey Namundi said they are overwhelmed by the number of civil and criminal appeals in Mbale Court.

“We are grateful that we have been considered at last because we have been complaining for a long time…the number of civil and criminal cases keep growing,” he said.

The assistant director of Public Prosecution of Mbale, Mr Alex Micheal Ojok, said they are understaffed, something he said is affecting their operations tremendously.

“For the last six years, we have never recruited state attorneys and currently one attorney handles more than three districts,” he said.

Ms Sarah Amunyii, the probation and welfare officer and the officer in charge of Mbale Remand Home, said they have a high number of juvenile cases that have been on remand for a long time.

“Some of the children have overstayed on remand longer than the sentences that they could serve if convicted,” she said, adding that Mbale Remand Home is congested.

Mr Deo Gacious Obedo, the Uganda Law Society representative said they have stepped up efforts to fight quack lawyers.

REPORT

Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo in his Judiciary annual performance report released in August, said the overall case backlog of all courts stood at 50,592 cases.

The report also showed that the biggest backlog was at the High Court with a total of 31,657 cases pending disposal.