All promotions of judicial officers in Uganda are based on merit and competence, the Judiciary has said.
Reacting to a group of about 60 anonymous magistrates who operate under a shadowy umbrella dubbed the Marginalised Magistrates Advocacy Plan (MMAP), the judiciary released a statement dismissing claims that the organisation’s members, who are operating clandestinely, had been side-lined in promotions.
According to the statement dated May 12 and issued by the Chief Registrar of Courts of Judicature, Paul Gadenya, members of MMAP have been sending anonymous and threatening e-mails to different Judicial Service Commission (JSC) officials, with a poignant one being sent to the Secretary of the Kagole Kivumbi on May 6, warning him of severe consequences if he failed to ensure their promotion.
In the communication to Kagole Kivumbi, the MMAP members issued a two week ultimatum to him to act on their ‘delayed’ promotions lest he face their wrath.
Some time back over sixty magistrates wrote to the JSC, the body that vets all judicial officers, claiming they had worked for the last ten years without promotion, and that their junior colleagues had surpassed them.
But Chief Registrar Gadenya thinks otherwise: judicial officers should not violate the Penal Code; they should use the established channels that include writing to the JSC through his office.
He then chided the grumbling magistrates: “The occupation of judicial officers is based on competence. You enter on merit and will be promoted on merit. Anonymous messages cannot get anybody promoted.”
However, in the same statement Gadenya says the judiciary is equally concerned about the issue of delayed promotions of judicial officers.
And, according to the Chief Registrar, on February 10 2015 he forwarded to the JSC 30 names of magistrates who had not been promoted in a long time, some for as long as 16 years, explaining their plight and how it had affected their work.
