Chief justice asks for powers to recruit new judges

By Sania Babirye

Chief Justice Bart Katureebe asks government to lift the recent ban it imposed on the judicial service commission regarding the recruitment of new judges and magistrates.

Katureebe says his courts are short of man power for effective and timely adjudication of cases .

He explains that the court of Appeal has only 11 active justices out of the required 15, the Highcourt has only 50 justices despite a resolution passed by parliament to increase the number to 82 and the lower courts still lack 56 Chief magistrates.

Katureebe has made the request while addressing judges attending this year's Judge's conference which is taking place at the Serena Hotel in Kampala where president Yoweri Museveni is the chief guest.

Katureebe has further explained that inadequate numbers of justices locks out the country's economic growth in unresolved commercial and Land cases.

The Chief Justice has however reported to the president at the 21st judges conference that the Judiciary still has challenges in the adjudication of land cases . He cited , delaying cases involving the poor , mishandling of cases and lack of resources for locus visits.

CJ has therefore asked the president to facilitate the processes of formulating laws and policies regarding land evictions.

On the part of his judicial officers , Kautureebe has warned judges and magistrates to always be alive on the decisions they make regarding land deputes as these decisions have a remarkable impact on society.

He urged them to endeavor to visit locus and take courts to hear complaints on the ground as this might solve the problem of illegal evictions