Museveni appoints 14 new judges
President Museveni has appointed fourteen (14) new judges to both the Appellant and High courts. The president sent the list of four appointees for the Appellant court and ten for the High Court parliament for approval.
Now the speaker of parliament Rebecca Kadaga has set Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th of February 2018 for the vetting process of the justices and High Court judges respectively.
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According to the list, justices; Christopher Madrama, Stephen Musota, Percy Tuhaise, Ezekiel Muhanguzi have been appointed to the Appellant court, while Jane Adobo, Cornelia Sabiti, Paul Gadenya, Richard Wabwire, Joyce Kavuma, Olive Kazarwe Mukwaya, Musa Sekaana, Alex Ajiji, Tadeo Asiimwe and Emmanuel Baguma to the High Court.
According to Solomon Muyita the head communications at the judiciary, the president appoints judges from a list of many that are forwarded to him by the judicial service commission.
‘The Judicial Service Commission nominates potential candidates who they interview and do back ground checks before sending to the president to select. The president’s appointment is further subjected to parliamentary approval through the vetting process.”
The appointment is partly to meet numerous demands by the judiciary for more judges. Muyita says that according to the judiciary’s formal structure the Supreme Court is fully constituted with 11 honorable justices with 9 serving judges and two who were recalled on contract after retirement.
He says that with the new appointment of four justices to the Appellant court, the current number of nine will be pushed to thirteen still below the official number of 15.
It’s imperative to note that the parliamentary legal committee proposed a total of 82 judges at high court level. However, this proposal has not yet secured a full parliamentary house resolution for it to be passed.
The judiciary has a total of 48 registrars with only 42 active ones, 38 chief magistrates, 187 active grade one magistrates of 192 and 36 grade two magistrates.
