One of the catchwords of this year's Judges conference was infighting, with none other Justice Benjamin Odoki suggesting regular meetings to minimize cases of officers fighting one another.
But one lingering question was who was fighting who and over what. Now, an investigation by The Observer has established that one of the sources of disgruntlement is the sharing of the judiciary's meager budget of Shs 85 billion. Indeed, the issue took centre stage during the February conference in Entebbe, as some judges demanded to know exactly how the judiciary's budget was being used.
According to sources in the conference, the concern among judges was that a lot of money was being spent on such things as office expenses and officers' allowances; meanwhile, the officers argued, very little money is allocated to handling cases so as to de-congest prisons and reduce the legendary backlog.
Among the more outspoken judges on the matter were Eldad Mwangusya, Remmy Kasule and Kenneth Kakuru of the Court of Appeal, and Catherine Bamugemereire of the High court.
Judiciary sources said Mwangusya called for "fairness" in the way resources are distributed. Kasule also wondered why some employees were entitled to some allowances while their peers of the same level were not.
Bamugemereire, who shot to prominence during the impeachment proceedings against Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago, demanded that judicial officers should get a 'balance sheet' showing how all the money sent to the judiciary was spent. Bamugemereire blamed the fights in the judiciary on lack of communication and transparency at the top.
"If the judiciary was open in its work, then there would be no fights," she said. Read more
No comments:
Post a Comment