The state of the judiciary

The constitution stipulates that the Supreme Court shall consist of Chief Justice and 10 justices of the court.

Currently, there are only eight justices and they don’t have a head who is the Chief Justice.

To make matters more complicated, out of those eight justices, three were elevated from the Court of Appeal, meaning if any appeal comes to the Supreme Court that has risen from a case that any of those three handled before the Court of Appeal, they cannot hear the case.

Justices of the Supreme Court; Bart. Katureebe, Jotham Tumwesigye, Dr. Esther .K. Kisaakye, Stella Arach Amoko, Benjamin .J. Odoki, Wilson .N. Tsekooko, Giladino .M. Okello, and Christine Nakaseta Binayisa Kitumba.

Court of Appeal/Constitutional Court

The Constitutional Court/ Court of Appeal of Uganda is located on fourth floor Twed Towers along Kafu Road, Nakasero, Kampala. It was formed following the promulgation of the 1995 Constitution, and the enactment of the Judicature Statute, 1996. Article 134 of the Constitution established the structure of the Court of Appeal.

There are currently 11 justices of the Court of Appeal/Constitutional Court though the Constitution stipulates 15 justices.
The Court of Appeal is the second highest court in the land. While presiding over matters, it is duly constituted when it consists of an odd number of not less than three (3) justices of the Court of Appeal.

It is this same court that constitutes itself into a Constitutional Court in accordance with the Constitution to hear constitutional cases.
The Constitutional Court is supposed to consist of 15 justices and handles the matters, issues or cases concerning the interpretation of the Constitution .When presiding over a constitutional matter, there must be a quorum of at least five Justices of the court.

Currently, there are 11 justices in this court headed by Steven Kavuma the Acting Deputy Chief Justice. They include; Steven Kavuma, Augustine Nshimye, Remmy Kasule, Dr Solomy Balungi Bossa, Eldad Mwangutsya, Rubby Aweri Opio, Faith Mwondha, Lillian Tibatemwa Ekirikubinza, Richard Buteera, Kenneth Kakuru and Geoffrey Kiryabwire.

High Court
The High Court consists of seven divisions. They include; Criminal Division, Civil Division, Land Division, Family Division, Commercial Division, Anti Corruption Division, International War Crimes and the yet to be revived Industrial Court., all located in different places. The court is headed by Principal Judge while the Industrial Court will be headed by the Chief Judge.

56 judges
There are 56 judges of the High Court. However, this number will soon increase to 60 after President Museveni appointed four more judges who will be sworn in some time this year. The President also recently appointed two judges of the yet to be revived Industrial Court.
According to Principal Judge Yorokamu Bamwine, in order for the High Court to optimally operate, it needs to have 82 judges. So apparently, the High Court is less by 20 judges.

Chief Magistrate Courts
Going down the judicial ladder, there are 47 Chief Magistrates and 131 Grade One Magistrates.

For starters, a Chief Magistrates Court is presided over by a Chief Magistrate. The court tries all cases except those (for criminal cases) whose maximum penalty is death- section 161 (1) (a) i.e. a Chief Magistrate may also pass any sentence authorised by law except a death sentence. Thus they have limited original jurisdiction.

A Chief Magistrate shall have jurisdiction where the value of the subject matter in dispute does not exceed Shs50m and shall have unlimited jurisdiction in disputes relating to conversion, damage to property or trespass;

A Chief Magistrate exercises general powers of supervision of all magistrates’ courts within the area of his or her jurisdiction. In exercising his or her powers of supervision, a Chief Magistrate may call for and examine the records of any proceedings before lower magistrates’ courts. They have appellate jurisdiction from Grade I courts i.e. they entertain appeals from the Grade I courts.

Grade One Magistrate Courts
These courts are presided over by Grade I Magistrates and they are usually situated at the district headquarters.
They only try criminal cases whose maximum penalty is not death or life imprisonment.

On the side of the civil matters, they have a limited jurisdiction of trying only cases where the value of the subject matter does not exceed Shs20m.

1:70,000
The ratio of Judicial officers to litigants. This means that when you go to court, that there are 69,999 people ahead of you.

2 years
On average, a criminal matter takes at minimum two years to be completed.

168,141 cases
Case backlog. The judiciary is struggling with a huge case backlog. According to the Principal Judge Yorokamu Bamwine’s recent presentation of the case backlog statistics at the 16th annual judges’ conference in Entebbe, the caseload as at December 31 last year, stood at 168,141 which is an alarming statistic.

Statistical breakdown on the case load
Supreme Court
Civil cases 39
Criminal cases 27

Court of Appeal
Civil cases 2,149
Criminal cases 2,131

Constitutional Court 492

High Court
Civil 35,621
Criminal 8,835

Magistrates courts
Civil 61,421
Criminal 57,426

prolonged pre-trial detention

A recent report on the activities of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Human Rights situation in Uganda revealed that the severe backlog in the court system has resulted into an infringement of the due process and fair trial guarantees of the accused and contributes to prolonged pretrial detention.

increased case backlog:

The systematic shortcomings in the Judiciary such as; considerable delays in the investigations and prosecution, irregular court sittings of magistrates’ courts and resource challenges in the prison system including transporting prisoners to court have contributed to the increased case backlog.

38,177inmates
According to the recent UN report on human rights issues in the country, the statistics that they obtained from Uganda Prisons Services indicate that as of August last year, the prison population was 38,177 while the approved accommodation capacity is at 3.6 sq meters per prison was 14,908. This translates to an excess of population above capacity of 23,269.

Still, the recent UN report findings based on the JLOS statistics showed that in 2012/13, the average remand to convict ratio stood at 54 per cent for remands to 45 per cent for convicts with 0.5 per cent being civil debtors.
Notably the number of remand prisoners remains comparatively higher than the number of convicts.
Challenges that the judiciary is facing
1.Lack of top leadership
It is coming to one year and the country does not have a substantive Chief Justice and the Deputy Chief Justice. The top leadership vacuum follows the retirement of Benjamin Odoki in March last year and also the passing on of the then Acting Deputy Chief Justice Constance Byamugisha early last year. Court of Appeal justice Steven Kavuma has since then assumed the two roles.
Court rooms being located in commercial/ business centres like those located at Twed Towers whose sessions are disrupted by the noisy environment.
2.Huge case backlog Vs few judicial officers
Poor remuneration especially for those on the lower Bench judicial officers who stand high chances of being tempted into accepting bribes.
3.Corruption

4.Interference
The Executive arm of state interfering with the Judiciary’s independence by not obeying court orders, besieging of court premises, influencing their cases to be decided in their favour, among others.
5.Poor image by the public.
6.Lack of witness protection gadgets during sensitive trials
7.Lack of adequate courtroom space.