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Chief Justice moots for Grade One Magistrate in each Sub County
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda’s Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny- Dollo wants each sub-county to have a Grade One Magistrate if the country is to realize equitable access to justice.
Dollo says that it is unfortunate that the Judiciary has been underfunded for decades and has not been given the priority it deserves.
Speaking at the National Budget Conference 2022/2023 at Kololo Independence Grounds, Justice Dollo said it is unfair for someone seeking justice to have to travel more than 80 kilometres to access justice.
He told the conference coordinated by the Prime Minister and the Minister for Finance, Planning and Economic Development that the judiciary should be given the attention it deserves, not an allocation of 0.4% of the budget, and a staffing level of just 37%.
Early last year it was reported that the judiciary had a case backlog of about 36,000, with the land division-leading with 5,681 cases, followed by the commercial court with 5,400 cases.
Other highly affected divisions include the criminal, family and civil divisions of the high court.
These figures have since increased, with the Commercial Division of the High Court for example He says, for example, the pending cases at the commercial court are worth almost 6 trillion shillings, while at the land division, land worth billions of money is tied up until the cases are disposed of.
Currently, there are about 190 Grade 1 Magistrates and 60 judges of the High Court, which Dollo says should be 150, for the judiciary to operate adequately.
Dollo also revealed that Mbarara and Gulu City authorities have offered land to establish Court of Appeal courts for the Western and the Northern regions respectively. He urged the government to play its part in funding the construction and equipping of the courts.
Currently, there are about 350 constituencies and 1,500 sub-counties in the country and it would cost about 2.5 billion shillings monthly in salaries to the magistrates, which Dollo says is some price to pay, but that the returns will be great.
The Minister of Public Service, Grace Mary Mugasa was also in support of the Chief Justice on extending service delivery but expressed concern at the rate at which the government loses cases to individuals and pays heavy costs.
Minister Matia Kasaija expressed surprise that more than 4 trillion shillings is tied up only in the commercial court in Kampala, and directed the permanent secretary to initiate a process that will see the case backlog reduced.
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