No court business this week as Anti-Corruption Court relocates
The building on Plot 5, Lourdel Road in Nakasero, Kampala, that will accommodate the Anti-Corruption Court. It currently houses the Supreme Court. PHOTO/Isaac KASAMANI
What you need to know:
- After more than a decade in Kololo, the court and the High Court International Crimes Division are shifting to Nakasero.
Business at the High Court, Anti-Corruption Division, will the whole of this week be disrupted, the Judiciary has announced.
This is to enable the relocation of the court to a rented four-storeyed building on Plot 5 Lourdel Road, Nakasero, from its current location on Mabua Road in Kololo, Kampala.
“The High Court, Anti-Corruption Division, will be relocating from September 25 to 29. During this period, the court will move its property, which involves uninstalling and reinstalling certain facilities related to computer networks, power back-up, etc ,” reads in part the September 2 relocation notice issued by the Judiciary’s Chief Registrar, Ms Sarah Langa Siu, to all court users.
The notice added: “This, therefore, means that services at the court will be interrupted. The court has adjourned cases outside the aforementioned period. However, filing and taking pleas will be managed by the court.”
Rationale
Ms Langa said the new premises are bigger and better than the current one where the court has been operating from for more than a decade.
“The court is relocating to a much bigger space than where it has been. The court chambers and registries are bigger and better situated to serve as courts of law. Even the International Crimes Division Court (ICD) is moving there, actually, it has already moved there,” Ms Langa said last evening.
Mr Pius Bigirimana, the Judiciary’s permanent secretary, yesterday said the branch of government spends about Shs10 billion per year in renting court premises across the country.
This is the same building that the Supreme Court moved to last November after fire gutted the chambers of Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo and left the court building in Kololo, inhabitable.
According to sources, the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal will soon move to their new home at the Judiciary headquarters at the Twin Towers, near the High Court Criminal Division and above Constitution Square in Kampala.
“Out of the Shs10b that we have been spending on rent, once the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal move to their new home, we shall only be paying about Shs4b in rent, meaning the government will be saving more than Shs6 billion it has been paying in rent, ”Mr Bigirimana said yesterday.
