Owiny-Dollo promises free mediation services in retirement

Chief Justice (CJ) Alfonse Owiny-Dollo has said when he retires from judicial work, he will return to his village and offer free mediation service to his people.

This, the head of the Judiciary said, is one way of tackling the case backlog in the Judiciary.
“I will go there and spend the rest of my life mediating disputes. I will offer the same service free of charge since I will retire with my salary,” the CJ said while launching a mediation project at International Centre for Arbitration and Mediation in Kampala (ICAMEK) on Tuesday.

Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution that resolves disputes outside the courts. 
The CJ said alternative dispute resolution is more flexible, less costly, time effective, and makes the parties control the process and the results. 

“When the British colonised us, they came with their adversarial dispute mode of resolution, which was taken as the right mode of dispute resolution and yet it’s the African dispute resolution which is original,” CJ Owiny-Dollo said.

He added: “The other one was imposed on us, that is why it has caused us problems like case backlog, technicalities, jargons, name it. I come from a community which for time immemorial has developed a superior mode of justice; where a wrong was not atoned for by an individual but the entire family and human life was atoned for by meaningful punishment.”

Not fully embraced

The head of the Judiciary added that despite the alternative forms of conflict resolution being the most efficient way of resolving conflicts in our society, the same has not yet been fully exploited.

“I was, therefore, pleased to learn that the International Centre for Arbitration and Mediation in Kampala has given this form of mediation adequate attention and continues championing it through the reconciliation project. I believe this drive will help in decongesting courts,” Justice Owiny-Dollo said.

The ICAMEK chairperson, Mr John Fisher Kanyemibwa, said ever since the inception of the mediation method in 2019, the institution has registered 56 arbitration cases and given eight awards.

Speaking at the same event, Justice Minister Norbert Mao said because of resource constraints, the Judiciary has more than 155,000 cases pending resolution within the formal justice system.

He commended ICAMEK for offering mediation services and tackling the case backlog.