Hoima to get High Court

What you need to know:

  • He said trials are expensive, time consuming and the outcome of the cases may not be as the suspect anticipate.
  • He, however, cautioned the innocent suspects against pleading guilty to offences they did not commit.

Hoima. The judiciary has resolved to open up a High Court in Hoima District this year. The court will handle cases from Hoima, Kagadi, Kibaale and Kakumiro districts.

Bunyoro region which has seven districts currently has one High Court which sits at Masindi. The court has only one Resident Judge. The court just like many others in the country has a high case backlog.

“Am pleased to inform you that Hoima has been gazetted as a High Court circuit,” the Masindi Resident Judge, Justice Rugadya Atwooki said on Tuesday during the launch of the plea bargain project in Bunyoro region.

The function was held at the Hoima Chief Magistrates Court in Hoima Municipality.

Justice Rugadya said the Hoima High Court will improve access to services, adding that the first criminal High Court session is expected to be held in July.

Mr Henry Natwaluma, the Officer in Charge of Masindi Prison who represented the Commissioner General of Prisons decried the high crime rate in Bunyoro region.

“We continue getting new inmates every day. The rate of trial is not as high as entry,” he said.

He revealed that there are prisoners who have remained on remand for more than five years and they do not know when their trial will commence.

The Principal Judge, Dr Yorokam Bamwine, who presided over the launch asked lawyers, inmates, leaders and the general public to embrace plea bargain.

“God is pleased with those who confess their sins. Likewise, society is pleased by people who make mistakes and own them up,” Dr Bamwine said.

He said trials are expensive, time consuming and the outcome of the cases may not be as the suspect anticipate.

He, however, cautioned the innocent suspects against pleading guilty to offences they did not commit.

“If you know that you did not commit the offence, do not sign it (plea bargain). Because if you do so on grounds that prison life is difficult, you will be telling lies to court and to God. We shall punish you here and God will also punish you,” Dr Bamwine said.