Appointments Committee approves seven new judges

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Parliament Appointments Committee has approved seven judges recently appointed by President Yoweri Museveni.

The two approved Court of Appeal justices are the former Deputy Solicitor General, Christopher Gashirabake and Jinja Resident Judge, Eva Luswata.

The committee chaired by Deputy Speaker Anita Among also approved five judges of the High Court. They include the former Deputy Director of Law Development Centre, Florence Nakachwa, former Acting Chief Registrar of the Judiciary Tom Chemutai, the former Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Vincent Wagona and former Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions.

The others are Alice Kyomuhangi, and Lawrence Tweyanze, the former Deputy Registrar in the Department of Inspectorate of Courts.

Their approval brings the total of Court of Appeal justices to 15 and 57 High Court judges.

A source on the committee said that all the President’s nominees were approved because they did not have a bad track record.

While vetting Nakachwa, a section of MPs sitting on the committee who were her students excused themselves from the proceeding due to conflict of interest. These included Leader of Opposition Mathias Mpuuga and Bugiri Municipality MP Asuman Basalirwa.

Speaking to journalists after appearing before the committee, Nakachwa said that she would work towards having good facilitation for the judges and also ensure that the case backlog within the Judiciary is dealt with.

The remaining new judges declined to speak to journalists after interacting with the MPs in the closed-door meeting. *****

URN