Judges get goats, cows from OWC

KAMPALA.

Judicial officers yesterday received 50 heifers and 100 goats from Operation Wealth Creation (OWC), the government’s flagship poverty alleviation programme.
This is in addition to 5,000 chicks and 100 pigs which they received from the same programme about a month ago, and mango and orange seedlings they got from the National Agricultural Advisory Services (Naads) a year earlier.
The materials, officials said, are to supplement the salaries of judicial officers since they will not be getting a pay raise in the next financial year as had earlier been promised.
The judges and magistrates received the materials under their umbrella association of Uganda Judicial Officers Association (UJOA).
Asked whether receiving cows and goats from OWC, whose officials may potentially appear before them in court, would not compromise their work, UJOA president Godfrey Kaweesa said they took the judicial oath and will stick to it.
“Independence of the Judiciary is guaranteed under Chapter Eight of the Constitution and every judicial officer subscribes to it. Therefore we are bound to remain independent,” Mr Kaweesa said
He added: “But we are also part of the society, we go to the same markets and we want our welfare to be looked into. ”
On why judicial officers are also benefiting from OWC yet they are relatively well paid, Mr Kaweesa said: “First of all, I must rebut the narrative that judicial officers are well paid compared to other sectors of government. The KCCA staff and other lawyers who work in other sectors are paid better than us. But that does not mean that we, the judicial officers, should not partake in government programmers just because there are unemployed youths around.”
The livestock was received at Nakawa court grounds by Mr Muhindo Ngene, the undersecretary of the Judiciary.
Dr Samuel Mugasa, the executive director of OWC, oversaw the handing over the livestock.