The permanent Secretary to the Judiciary who also double as the secretary to the institution Dr. Pius Bigirimana cites understaff and inadequate finding to his subsector as the cause to the backlog of cases specifically in the land and commercial court divisions respectively.
Bigirimana while presenting in the NRM manifesto implementation week at Prime Ministers office in Kampala to show a case as accountability to the citizens said the delay in deciding court cases in the Land and commercial courts have negatively impacted on the economy and overall development of the economy although he didn’t elaborate more.
He called on government to increase on the budget funding such that judiciary can be able to recruit more judicial and non-judicial officials something he say will help do ease the case backlog in the land and commercial divisions respectively.
“ We projected our budget to be at UGX 800 billion optimum in the foreseeable future but now it is standing at UGX 391 billion and it was last enhanced 2 years ago.’’ Dr. Bigiriman said.
He adds on: There has been recruitment of 16 new judges of high court bringing the total number to 72 from 56 before the current fiscal year and 205, 967 case have also been disposed off out of a total caseload of 373,974 compared to the FY 2020/21 156,875 case out of a caseload of 317,929.
The Magistrates Grade one numbers were also improved from only 186 in the 2021 to 301 Magistrates in the current fiscal year, well as there are now 77 Chief Magistrates in 5 Operationalized magisterial areas a number the permanent secretary say is still wanting.
On a positive note, Bigirimana informed the gathering that the judiciary before the end of this year will unveil the 10 floor 2 towers building which are planned to house the Supreme and court of appeal respectively. He said that the court of appeal building is 85% complete while that of the Supreme Court is done by 90% and have a parking space of 226 vehicles. A total of 16 lower courts premises have also been constructed in the different areas in the country.
The minister of Constitutional Affairs Norbert Mao who also addressed the congregation including journalist said that the office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) is still very wanting in terms spread of offices in the country, staffing and funding.
“ The DPP’s office is spread to only 40% of the districts and the staff gap is currently standing at 60% and this is greatly impacting negatively on the success of the work being done by the prosecutors.’’ Mao said.
He also said that despite challenges faced by Uganda Human Rights Commission such as underfunding, high case backlog among others, the country is ranked as number one in Africa in fight for human rights in a survey done by the Global Alliance on Human Rights.
There are only 12 Human Rights offices spread in 22 places country wide yet according to the policy each district ought to have at least one human rights office.
By George Bukenya