We will give Museveni more time in meetings - Judiciary

Judges last evening resolved to give President Museveni ample time in future meetings.
The agreement was one out of the five recommendations that the judges came up with at the closure of the four-day annual conference in Kampala yesterday.
“The Judiciary should plan with the Office of the President to create more time for HE the President to attend future annual conferences,” read in part the recommendation.
On Monday this week, President Museveni, while officially opening the annual judges’ conference, lamented how the time scheduled for him to meet with the judges as their chief guest was less.

He described the short time he had with the judges as “passing by” and not meeting to discuss with them their challenges at length.
“I propose that in the future, and my office should be strict on this, they [should] ensure that when I come, I should stay for long. In Runyankole, we say ‘nkarabaho’, which means, I passed by. I was not part of the meeting, I was not part of the retreat, but I passed by,” President Museveni said.

He added: “That is not good enough in my view, and today (Monday), it was a bad day because it’s a Cabinet day, so I don’t know why they put it on the Cabinet day.”
The head of State also proposed that there should be an inter-branch meeting with the other heads of arms of government such as the Speaker, himself, and the Chief Justice if they are to effectively resolve some of the challenges the judges and other government officials perennially face.
Mr Museveni also said the Prime Minister and Vice President should be part of their meetings.  The President has in the recent past attended the Annual Judges’ Conference, Benedicto Kiwanuka Memorial Lecture, and the New Law year, among other meetings. However, he has been speaking for less than an hour.
Some of the challenges that Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo on Monday asked Mr Museveni to address included increasing the budget of the Judiciary so that they can address the monster of case backlogs.

The budget of the Judiciary is Shs382b against the expected Shs800b.
“Your Excellency, I appeal to you to continue supporting the Judiciary so that we do not lose the gains we have registered regarding minimising case backlog at the Magistrate Grade One level. A total of 3,586 cases completed by the magistrates have been appealed and are pending before the High Court, which is already overwhelmed by the cases handled at first instance. We should recruit more judges so that we do not have an increase of backlog at the High Court resulting from appeals from the Magistrates Courts,” the CJ said.

“The average caseload per judge of the High Court now is 945 cases. We appeal for a caseload of 300 cases per judge, which is possible if more judges are recruited. As you have supported the Judiciary before, we will deliver timely justice to all our people once we have the numbers,’’ he added.
While closing the judges’ conference last evening, the Deputy Chief Justice, Richard Buteera, encouraged the judges to focus on improved performance and administration of courts and put an end to vices such as perceived and actual corruption, absenteeism, and delayed delivery of judgments when they return to their duty stations.
This year’s annual judges’ conference ran under the theme: “The Judiciary Transformation Agenda Enhanced Access to Justice”.

Justice remedy
      Some of the recommendations that the judges came up with to improve the justice system include; the Judiciary should develop a clear and costed roadmap for the effective implementation of ECCMIS in all court stations, expediting and completing the standardisation of the performance assessment tool, and all monthly statistical reports to be signed off by both the head of divisions of circuits and their respective registrars.