The Judiciary has in the recent past received a significant addition to its human resource following the appointment of new judicial officers at different levels of the judicial structure.
According to the Chief Registrar, HW Sarah Langa Siu, the new appointees have all been deployed at various courts and these have had a direct impact on the existing judicial officers as a number of them have been transferred across the country.
The Judiciary says that this has had a major impact on case disposal as there has been tremendous improvement in the performance of the courts in terms of the determination of cases, specifically at the Magistracy level.
Highlighting the impact of the most recent appointments and re-deployments, the Hon Chief Justice, Alfonse Chigamoy Owiny-Dollo, observed that the recent appointments have enhanced access to justice by the people.
He noted that ever since the Judiciary unveiled its Transformation Agenda and developed the Judiciary Strategic Plan V to facilitate the realisation of the said agenda, the new deployments will go a long way in attaining the institution’s core mission of efficiently and effectively administering justice.
The new officers all appointed in acting capacity include; 14 Deputy Registrars, 8 Assistant Registrars and 20 Chief Magistrates.
According to the Chief Justice, these appointments bring the number of Deputy Registrars to 43, Assistant Registrars to 19 and Chief Magistrates to 91.
“In 2020, when I assumed the office of Chief Justice, we only had 42 Chief Magistrates. Of the 42, 27 were caretaking between 2 to 5 Magisterial areas. For example, the Chief Magistrate of Fort Portal then was caretaking Kasese, Bundibugyo, Ntoroko, Kyenjojo and Kamwenge. One of Soroti was caretaking Kumi, Kaberamaido and Katakwi. Those Chief Magistrates spent more time on the road moving from station to station and could not work effectively,” he stated.
He added: “Today, all these Courts have resident Chief Magistrates. Indeed, with the recent appointments we have now deployed Chief Magistrates in Kalangala, Budaka, Bugiri, Butambala, Sembabule, Mitooma, Yumbe and Bundibugyo. As I have always said, we shall continue with our transformation journey until justice is accessed at walking distance like drinking water and backlog redefined from 2 years to 1 year.”
Meanwhile, HW Sarah Langa Siu observed that in addition to expanding the coverage of the Judiciary and taking judicial services closer to the people, the deployments and transfers were also informed by caseload and enhanced efforts to eliminate case backlog.
To this end, courts with high caseloads like Nakawa, Mbarara and Mengo Chief Magistrates Courts with a caseload of 3,766; 3,323 and 2,297 cases respectively, received additional Chief Magistrates.
She added that the High Court Division Registries like Commercial, Land and Family with high caseloads of 1,689; 2,874 and 2,354 cases were beefed up with additional Deputy and Assistant Registrars to expedite the hearing of interlocutory matters.
“I am equally happy to report that all the 20 High Court Circuits now have Deputy Registrars or Assistant Registrars. This will now allow the Chief Magistrates who have been caretaking these Circuits to focus on their dockets,” she noted.
She added: “With this human resource boost, we expect to see a substantial rise in case disposal. At the end of the last Financial Year (FY2021/22), the Judiciary disposed of 252,021 cases. As of April 19, there were 165,124 pending cases in all courts and of these, 46,151 were backlogged. This accounts for 28% of the caseload in the courts.”
Among the other priorities, the Judiciary is strengthening the Inspectorate of Courts.
Two additional Deputy Registrars have been deployed in the Registry bringing the number to five.
The Chief Inspector of Courts is Hon. Justice Stephen Musota. In the Registry are the Registrar, HW Kwizera Amos and five Deputies – HW Gabriel Angualia, HW Helen Ajio, HW Dorothy Ssempala Lwanga, HW Samuel Twakyire and HW Agnes Alum.
The Chief Registrar observed that in terms of implementing the expanded structure of the Judiciary, there is good progress.
“Forty-three (43) of the 80 Deputy Registrar positions have been filled representing 53.7%. For Assistant Registrar positions, 19 out of the 40 positions have been filled, representing 47.5% of the approved structure. Currently, we have 91 Chief Magistrates out of the approved 160 which represents 57% of the filled positions,” she said.
HW Langa extended her appreciation to the Judicial Service Commission for the timely appointments.
The deployments will take immediate effect while the transfers are effective 1st July 2023.
Below is the complete deployment and transfer list.
