The Chief Justice, His Lordship, Bart Katureebe has said judges in Uganda need special training to help them do their work better.
“We need that training at induction, being a good scholar or lawyer does not necessarily mean that you will make a good judge,” he said
He added that government has built capacity of judicial officials. “We have strengthened the training of judicial officers. I don’t need to over emphasise the need of training,” he said.
He made the remarks Wednesday during the launch of Judiciary Scorecard at the Kampala Serena Hotel.
He continued that: “Once you’re confirmed as a judge, you need to transition naturally. We take part of the blame and now we welcome training of judges.”
“You might be a good lawyer but the moment you are transformed into a judge, you need to learn how to be a good judge which at times actually fails to work,” he said.
He said the judiciary has strengthened fighting against corruption. “Some people however speculate that they have lost a number of cases because judges were bribed. Sometimes, you criticise the judges for nothing,” he said, adding that they have set up hotlines to help the public report any judges involved in corruption activities.
Even with the limited resources, he said, “the judiciary must do work and this includes reporting in time to court as well. We have a lot of mindsets to change in order to move forward.”
According to the scorecard, the best performing court according to the legal professionals was the High Court circuit sitting in Arua which attained the highest score of 97.3 per cent in the overall assessment.
The courts were assessed on six parameters which included: Fairness in the administration of justice impartiality, professionalism, certainty, behaviour and attitude.
The Criminal Court, Supreme Court and Commercial Court Divisions received 93.2 per cent ,89.2 per cent & 86.9 per cent scores respectively mainly due to a strong perception about their impartiality, certainty, professionalism. The Land Division and Court of Appeal with 79.2 per cent and 72.2 per cent in overall assessment scores respectively were reportedly having challenges in all the six parameters.

Livingstone Ssewanyana observes that central region had a higher number of litigants (61 per cent) whose cases were mainly criminal and civil in nature. In the northern territory nearly a third of the interviews made with litigants were done with prisoner
The scorecard is meant to measure the performance of judicial officers from the perception formed by various stakeholders.
It contains performance measurements and parameters that are linked to vision, mission, values and mandate of the judiciary as given by the constitution.
Centre for Public Interest Law used and used the tools of structured interviews, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, observations and desk research to

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President Yoweri Museveni has promised to inject Shs 1 billion in the Crime Preventer’s Savings and Credit Cooperative Organization (SACCO) to enable them get startup capital to improve their businesses.

Speaking to the Crime Preventers at Lugogo this morning, President Museveni implored them to form SACCOs in order to benefit from this initiative. With this intervention, he said, in July each district will get Shs 100 million to man down shooting unemployment cases and poverty in the country.

He cautioned them to be exemplary in averting crime and eradicating poverty in their ancestral villages. “Your leaders should work with Police and Operation Wealth Creation with one crime preventer at every parish to serve as an example for the rest,” he said.

Mr. Museveni also said that he, not the former Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura, mooted the idea of enlisting the services of crime preventers.

“In the role of detecting crime, I need to sit down with your leaders to see how to handle it, criminals operate mainly in villages and if you have not yet developed village coordinators, and it is high time you do it. I regard you as a reserve army for Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF), my idea is to have a small and equipped army with a big reserve,” Museveni noted, and lauded Gen. Kayihura for offering effective leadership to the Crime Preventers.

President Museveni’s meeting with crime preventers follows an earlier meeting with their head Blaise Kamugisha in Rwakitura, where the latter  vowed to work hand in hand with police to avert the rising crime which includes abduction, torture and murder.

The National Crime Preventer’s Forum (NCPF) was founded in 2013 with the aim of promoting community policing through sensitization, awareness and outreach.

However, since the formation of NCPF, political elites and legal scholars have said their activities as illegal.

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The trial of veteran journalist Reverend Isaac Bakka has failed to kick off because the case file is incomplete.

Bakka and his three co- accused are charged with treason and have today appeared Wednesday before Nakawa Court Chief Magistrate Jamson Karemani for mention of the case, which failed to proceed.

State Prosecutor Ann Ntimba informed court that police inquiries are ongoing, and Karemani further remanded the accused to Luzira upper prison as police continues investigations.

The 68 year-old Bakka, a journalist working with BTN and Nile FM in Gulu, was allegedly kidnapped in January this year at a taxi stage in Mukono by unknown people.

Following a long search by his family members, friends and intervention of parliament and public pressure, security agencies later admitted to having picked up Bakka.

They subsequently took him to Nakawa court where he was charged with treason and remanded to Luzira prison.

Prosecution states that Bakka, a former Chaplain in Uganda Army under President Iddi Amin, connived with a one Godfrey Asea, George Ngungu and Innocent Mawe to contrive a plot to overthrow the government of Uganda between January 2017 and January 2018 within various districts in Uganda and in other countries such as Kenya and South Sudan.

This was allegedly through making utterances, acquisition of firearms and recruitment of individuals into armed forces.

The case has now been adjourned to the April 11, 2018.

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Constitutional Court has appointed five Judges of Court of Appeal to start the hearing of petitions filed by concern Citizens against age limit bill that was passed into law days after endorsing it in Parliament.
The appointed Judges are Deputy Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny Dollo, Remmy Kasule, Kenneth Kakuru, Elizabeth Musoke and Chebrion Barishaki.
In a meeting with both the litigant’s lawyer Wandera Ogalo and Deputy Attorney General Mwesigwa Rukutana, Justice Dollo implore both parties to leave political issues and resort to addressing legal matters, “politics is not necessary, if it was then, you would not have come to courts of law” he added.
“Since court announced Mbale as the venue where the case will herd, I consulted Chief Justice Bart Katureebe on the matter including convenience as it was stated by litigants, he said in a nutshell that, ‘their argument is baseless, judiciary has the jurisdiction to handle any matter in any court in Uganda.’
According to Dollo, Court will be looking into three issues which include the expunging of age limit cap that had been set at 75 years, the extension of Legislators’ terms in office from five to seven years and the suspension of 2021 elections to 20123.The hearing of the matter is scheduled to start on April 9, 2018 in Mbale.
Last year, six opposition legislators led by Winnie Kiiza, Uganda Law Society, Male Mabirizi among other concerned citizens petitioned the Constitutional Court challenging Age Limit Act auguring that the process of enacting the bill was marred with violence, assault of legislators, storming of Special Forces Command (SFC) in Parliamentary chambers and violations of human rights which among others contradicts with Parliamentary rules and procedures.

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