Appoint Principal Judge, Chief Registrar
What you need to know:
- To avoid constitutional issues that might even attract legal action, let the concerned recruitment and appointing authorities and institutions do their job, and in time.
Two out of the five key positions in the Judiciary’s top management structure are currently vacant. They include that of the Principal Judge and Chief Registrar. The Principal Judge is the third most senior officer after the Deputy Chief Justice and Chief Justice. The Principal Judge is the head of the High Court and subordinate courts. This position fell vacant in early February when Dr Flavian Zeija was elevated to the position of Deputy Chief Justice to replace the retiring Richard Buteera. The position of Chief Registrar, who is the officer in charge of the day-to-day running of Judiciary affairs and also the overseer of the magistrates’ courts, also fell vacant at the same period after the office holder, Sarah Langa Siu, was appointed a judge of the High Court and has since been deployed to Wakiso District.
Because there were no immediate successors to these very important positions, Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo appointed Justice Jane Okuo Kajuga and Pamela Lamunu as the acting Principal Judge and Chief Registrar, respectively. Scenarios of judicial officers holding very sensitive positions in acting capacity are not new in Uganda. Between April 2013 and March 2015, Justice Steven Kavuma was both Deputy Chief Justice and acting Chief Justice. A lot went amiss because of the lack of substantive leadership at the top. With previous scenarios associated with officers in acting capacity, our stand is that the concerned authorities – the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and the President – must quickly recruit these two very crucial officers in the Judiciary. The vacancies of some of these offices don’t just happen overnight. For example, if the appointing authority wanted to elevate the substantive Principal Judge to Deputy Chief Justice, then his replacement should have been quickly considered.
Several things usually go wrong when you allow officers to be in acting capacities. For example, there are already procedural complaints being raised about how the Chief Justice could use Article 133 to appoint Justice Okuo as Principal Judge in acting capacity, and yet Article 141 (2) demands that it should be the President after consultations with the Chief Justice. So to avoid such constitutional issues that might even attract legal action, let the concerned recruitment and appointing authorities and institutions do their job, and in time. Many eligible Ugandans out there can perform the functions of those who have either been elevated or retired.
