MPs Disagree on Request by Judiciary to Increase the Number of Supreme Court and Court of Appeal Justices.

MPs have warned that the move by Gov’t to bloat the Supreme Court with 21 justices & Court of Appeal with 55 justices, will see taxpayers pay Shs37Bn in salaries & other emoluments in the mid-term, an expenditure they said is unsustainable in Uganda.

You are telling us to create a bill of US$10Mn (Shs37.9Bn) annually, that is in the medium term. Oh dear, the taxpayer deserves better. Judges should be doing their job, they should be more efficient and more effective. You don’t know how many mothers are dying while giving birth up to today. And instead, we are allocating the meagre resources in areas where we think we can work differently and we achieve the same results," said Katuntu.

The warning was issued by Abdu Katuntu (Bugweri County) who rejected proposals by the Judiciary, Law Development Centre & Uganda Law Reform Commission that backed the proposal contained in the Judicature Amendment Bill 2023, while appearing before the Legal & Parliamentary Affairs Committee.

Abdu Katuntu (Bugweri County) made a comparison of 12 nations whose GDPs and populations are higher than Uganda, but most had fewer ratios of justices at the Supreme Court as compared to their people, wondering what was unique about Uganda to want a bloated Supreme Court.

"What is this uniqueness you are telling me? I have been waiting for it, that Uganda is such a unique country it needs a bloated Supreme Court. What is this uniqueness that is different from Kenya, Tanzania, United Kingdom, Unites States, South Africa?" asked Katuntu.

Pamela Tibihikirra, Chairperson Uganda Law Reform Commission backed the proposal to increase the number of justices at the supreme court, but asked Parliament to ensure that the Judiciary justifies the numbers.

"We do agree with you entirely that we need to increase the numbers entirely, but in a manner that should be justifiable given our population size and look at other ways of handling case backlog. Is the answer to case backlog more judges, is that the only answer?," said Tibihikirra.

Pamela Tibihikirra, Chairperson Uganda Law Reform Commission also called for a deeper interrogation on what the increment will mean for Uganda’s budget, given that recently, salaries of judicial officers were enhanced in a package that left justices of Supreme Court walk away with heft retirement packages.

"Perhaps there are other ways of handling backlog because increasing judges comes with a hefty bill. The Administration of Justice Act 2020 might have given the Judiciary more resources, but they also come with a charge on the consolidated fund. So we need to balance our numbers very well because the package is very good and it extends to retirement as well. In principle, we agree with the increase of numbers but we need to think through if these are the actual numbers that we need," added Tibihikirra.

Sarah Langa, Chief Registrar said the justices at the two courts were last increased in 2011, & the new changes will see judges at Supreme Court sit in three panels, will regional appeals courts will be established in Mbarara, Gulu, Mbale, Jinja, Arua, Fort Portal, Masaka and Soroti, to end the current practice of all appeals being done in Kampala.

"This will tremendously improve on the number of cases handled and completed by the three panels which will eliminate the case backlog. These will serve the people of Uganda better and the cases will be concluded in a timely manner which will also build investor confidence in the judicial system, and therefore boosting the economic growth of the country," said Langa.