Grab an umbrella or dash for high cover: It’s raining judges, registrars, magistrates!

Then replacing one failed programme with another, each time claiming a new beginning is underway. Nothing really surprising there; that’s what happens when those in power have absolutely no idea about strategic planning beyond capturing and retaining state power.

So, finally, after an eternity, we can for just this once gently nod the head in agreement, albeit with the usual manly reservations, about the onset of heavy rains: boy, it is raining judges, registrars and magistrates! It would hardly be hyperbole to advise people to grab an umbrella near them or dash for high cover as the rains and thunderstorms continue, because whoever doesn’t, risks being hit by a judge, registrar or magistrate…and not all of them …ahem!... are exactly lightweights.

Our voices are getting hoarse offering congratulations, as the numbers of appointees grow and yet we are just getting started, going by what Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo has intimated over the last few months.

It is refreshing for once, to see government making useful appointments that have potential to cause meaningful social change; rather than the usual political appointments for welfare purposes whose only beneficiaries are the appointees and ruling junta, at the expense of the taxpayer and good governance.

Plain truth is, the Judiciary has been for long plagued by shortage of manpower. You file a case today, and you’d be extremely lucky to have it resolved within five years. Any lawyer, just pick any, will tell you of cases they have handled for over a decade; while others will tell you of those they inherited and are still struggling with and that those cases were filed when the said lawyers were still in primary school! We are talking about cases whose history reads retired judges, dead lawyers, dead original litigants and which have somehow been snail-paced through the judicial system.

Confidence in the judicial system remains low and for many, going to court is often a last resort, which probably explains why a village witchdoctor has far more clients and breaks even faster than a city lawyer. 

It is a public secret that judicial officers have far more work than they can, humanly speaking, handle very well or even at all. It is unreasonable to expect properly reasoned judgments and expeditious disposal of cases when the judicial officers, who just happen to be human beings too, are overwhelmed by work. 

While the number of lawyers has been steadily growing over the last decade, and with it, a corresponding increase in litigation, the number of judicial officers had changed only ever so slightly. Judicial officers also get sick, like any other humans. They get transferred to new stations. They have kids to take to school at beginning of term and to pick at end of term. And they get babies which necessitates maternity leave…or paternity leave. Some get tired to the point of ‘washed-down and burnt-out’; sometimes they just want to do nothing on the day you turn up because they have been so busy that their bodies badly need a rest. 

All this takes a toll on the flow of justice and becomes pretty frustrating for both lawyers and litigants. In a special way for lawyers, cases that don’t move do hold up monies and cause undue liquidity problems in law chambers, so more judicial officers is definitely good news. 

We hope we shall see the wheels of justice grind a tad faster than before and that the increase in quantity will be matched with increase in quality of delivery. It is refreshing to know that these are appointments that will not be accompanied by videos on social media of crazy cats and raccoons dancing with piles and sacks of money while praising the ruling party. A dead clock just got the time right!

Gawaya Tegulle is an advocate of the High Court of Uganda

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