The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Justice Mike Chibita and two other judges have been appointed to the Supreme Court after being shortlisted along 13 other judges and individuals.
In a letter addressed to the Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, President Yoweri Museveni appointed Justice Chibita, Ezekiel Muhanguzi and Percy Tuhaise to Supreme Court under the powers vested in him in the 1995 Constitution of Uganda.
According to Judicial Service Commission regulations of 2005, a person shall be qualified for appointment as a justice of the Supreme Court if he or she has served as a justice of Appeal or a judge of the High Court or a court of similar jurisdiction to such a court or has practiced as an advocate for a period not less than fifteen years before a court having unlimited jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters.
“I hereby forward their names and CVs for approval by the appointments Committee of Parliament,” Museveni wrote.
Who is Justice Mike Chibita?
Mike Chibita is a Ugandan lawyer and judge on the High Court of Uganda, who serves as the Director of Public Prosecution in Uganda, since 15 August 2013. Before that, he served as a justice of the High Court of Uganda.
Mr Chibita holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from Makerere University obtained in 1988, a Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice, obtained from the Law Development Centre, in 1989 and Master of Laws degree in International and Comparative Law from the University of Iowa, in the United States.
He lectured in International Relations and African History at the University of Northwestern – St. Paul, in Roseville, Minnesota, a suburb of St. Paul in the United States in 1993.
In 1994, he returned to Uganda and was hired as a State Attorney, in the Attorney Generals Chambers. He served as a Legal Assistant to the Attorney General of Uganda from 1995 until 1996.
He was then appointed as the Private Secretary for Legal Affairs, in the Office of the President of Uganda, serving there for seven years from 1996 until 2003. In 2003, he returned to the Chambers of the Attorney General of Uganda for another two years. He then served as an Assistant Commissioner, in Commissioner General’s Office at the Uganda Revenue Authority, until 2010.
Who is Justice Ezekiel Muhanguzi?
Ezekiel Muhanguzi is a Ugandan lawyer and judge, on the Court of Appeal of Uganda, which doubles as the country’s Constitutional Court. He was appointed to that position by President Yoweri Museveni on 8 February 2018. Prior to his elevation to the Court of Appeal/Constitutional Court, Justice Muhanguzi served on the High Court of Uganda, retiring from there in February 2017, after attaining the mandatory retirement age (for the High Court of Uganda) of 65 years.
Ezekiel Muhanguzi studied law at Makerere University, Uganda’s largest and oldest public university, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree in 1976. Later, he received a Diploma in Legal Practice, from the Law Development Centre, in Kampala, the national capital. He was then admitted to the Uganda Bar.
His last assignment at the High Court was in the International Crimes Division of the court. He served as a member of a three-judge tribunal that tried 14 men who were accused of carrying out the murders of Muslim clerics in Uganda, between 2014 and 2015. Justices Percy Tuhaise and Jane Kiggundu were the other two judges on that tribunal.
He was selected to be the lead judge on that three-judge panel. He left that tribunal before that case was concluded, due to his reaching the age of retirement. He was replaced on the tribunal by Justice Wilson Kwesiga. He previously served as the resident High Court judge in the Mbale court circuit.
Who is Justice Percy Tuhaise?
Percy Night Tuhaise, is a Ugandan lawyer and judge who, on 8 February 2018, was appointed by President Yoweri Museveni, to the Uganda Court of Appeal which also doubles as the country’s Constitutional Court. Prior to her current position she served on the High Court of Uganda.
She graduated from the Faculty of Law of Makerere University, Uganda’s largest and oldest public university, with a Bachelor of Laws, circa 1983. The following year, she was awarded a Diploma in Legal Practice by the Law Development Centre, in Kampala, Uganda’s capital city. She also holds a Master of Laws from Makerere University.
After her admission to the Uganda Bar, she served in various roles in and outside public service. She was a member of the Uganda Law Reform Commission. At the time of her appointment to the Uganda High Court, she was the deputy director of the Law Development Centre, in Kampala, and concurrently served as the vice-chairperson of the electricity disputes tribunal. At the High Court, Justice Tuhaise has served in the Family Division and in the International Crimes Division.
Tuhaise participated in translating of the 1995 Constitution into Runyoro/Rutooro under supervision of the Law Development Centre. She was one of the trial judges in the “Muslim Clerics’ Murder Trial”, between 2016 and 2017. She is the author of several publications.
