By George Bukenya
The poor performance of Uganda’s economy is partly attributed to the pending commercial and Land division court cases, which are translated into Ushs 77 trillion.
This is a result of the huge backlog of court cases that are yet to be decided , where of the 51,748 backlog of cases, Land Division accounts for 10,000 while commercial court also take a significant lion’s share .
While addressing reporters on the Ruling Party Manifesto implementation at President’s building in Kampala, the Permanent Secretary who also doubles as Secretary to Judiciary Mr. Pius Bigirimana attributed this economic challenge to the limited government funding allocated to the sector.
“The current challenges we are facing as a sector hinges mostly on budget allocation. Although there has been enhancement in our budget for the past financial periods, were still receiving almost a half of what we ask for. This financial year running we asked for Uhs 800 billion but government managed to allocate to the sector Ushs 442 billion for the fiscal year 2024/25,’’ Bigirimana said.
He further said,“ this explains why deciding of court cases delays due to limited man power especially magistrates and judges.’’. ‘’With the enhancement in our budget allocation, we have only been able to requite 31% of the approved 7,929 judicial and support staffs.
The Secretary to the Judiciary also pointed out the challenge of lack of harmony in handling criminals cases where he noted that sometimes court is ready to proceed hearing such cases but only to be let down by the Attorney General and Directorate of Public Prosecution offices whose officials absent themselves from court on many occasions without explanation.
The Chief registrar Sarah Lang Sin who also attended the media briefing cited out pecuniary jurisdiction as one of the reason why there is a huge backlog of cases especially in the Land Division court.
“The backlog of cases which affects investment and growth of our economy partly hinges on the law which requires for instance grade I Magistrates and Chief Magistrates to handle land case not exceeding Ushs 20 million and 50 million respectively,’’ Land reasoned.
She suggested for the amendment of the law in order to reduce on such challenge where she said that ceiling should at least be revised to Ushs 100 million in terms of value of the land case to be tried by the grade I magistrate and Ushs 200 million land value for the Chief Magistrate.
Magistrate Lang also said that according to research, the popular views suggest this especially in Kampala Metropolitan where the land is of very high value compared to other parts of the country.
Despite the challenges, there are significant strides reached by the sector for instance the Secretary to the Judiciary informed reporters that the case backlog have greatly reduced from 32.11% to 25% as of mid, 2024.
The sector has also been able to construct permanent homes for some court divisions for example the twin tours at Kampala High Court which house the Supreme and court of Appeal this helps to save funds which initially was being spent on rent.
According Mr. Bigirimana, enhancement of judicial officers’ Salaries has also been achieved for instance for the Judges and Chief Registrars 100% Registrars 75% and their assistants 70%, chief magistrate 70% and grade one magistrate 92%.
Court Premises have also been constructed and Judiciary has 105 courts operating in its own premises, while 56 are in rented premises, 77 are doing work in District and Sub-County buildings.
In Mukono, High Court building is completed, there is also ongoing construction of 12 court buildings, 3 justice Centres at Shema, Kole and Kibaale, 4 High Court buildings in Tororo, Rukungiri, Soroti and Kampala, 3 Chief Magistrates Court at Albetong, Lyantonde and Budaka
On the issue of fighting corruption, Bigirimana said that he introduced wearing of Uniforms by the non-judicial staffs to stop them for masquerading as court officials and the use of Video Conferencing where some suspects are being tried while in prisons to have physical contact with Judicial Officers.
The number of court inspectors has been increased from 3 to 5 and due to this there has been improvement in the investigation of disciplinary cases were 157 courts have been inspected so far and 563 case heard whereas disciplinary action have been taken on 22 Judicial Officers.