How more and more Ugandans continue to languish in jail
On July 29, 14 people accused of defilement were paraded before the Chief Magistrate, Nakawa High Court. Many of them had spent up to six years on remand in Luzira Prison. They looked desperate for freedom. The prosecution read out their offences. Gruesome details of how the accused persons befriended, deceived, and eventually had sex with minors.
The 14 accused had one defense lawyer, who kept giving a similar statement in defense of each accused person.
“My lord, the accused is young, with his whole life ahead of him, he has spent 2/3/4/5 years in prison, he is a promising citizen, he is sorry and regretful, and his future is in your hands,†said the lawyer.
All the accused had pleaded guilty. A ruling would be passed later that afternoon.
Meanwhile the magistrate was clearly struggling to keep up listening to the prosecution, listening to the defense, listening to the translator, and taking notes. He had no stenographer to document the proceedings thus forcing him to write down everything. This is the same in many courts around the country. This magistrate, like many others, handles up to 40 backlog cases every month in a bid to reduce on the current bulk.
The recent appointment of 16 judges was aimed at addressing the problem of case backlog. The Question is, how expeditiously will these cases be handled? The management of cases is a one-man task for magistrates or judges. Registrars in both the criminal and civil division of the courts allocate files equally to magistrates and judges. They also monitor the disposal of these cases.
Evidently, the management of cases in the Uganda judicial system is inadequate. Deputy Registrar, Criminal Division John Arutu explains. “My office distributes and monitors the disposal of cases. How a Judge or a magistrate executes them is a matter of personal commitment. Some of them do not execute their work satisfactorily. A judge needs to set a work schedule to handle his or her files. Possibly they are not adequately motivated or facilitated.â€
There is another impeding shortage as more judges are expected to retire within the next two years. Already the High Court and the Court of Appeal require a maximum of 50 and 12 judges respectively. However, High Court has 30 judges while the Court of Appeal has only 7.
The few magistrates cannot keep up with the case build up. According to a country report on human rights practices in Uganda released in June 2007, there were 74,066 cases pending. 104 of these cases were in the Supreme Court, 2,422 in both the Constitutional Court and the Court of Appeal and 20,169 cases in the High Court. Annually, the disposal of these cases was rated at 10% in the Supreme Court, 8% in the Constitutional Court, 25% in the High Court and 50% in the Magistrate’s Courts per year across the country.
Government statistics on the other hand indicated that of the 17,931 inmates in the various prisons across the country, 10,490 had been detained without trial. Between the months of April and October of 2007, 142 cases had been thrown out of court due to lack of evidence caused by disappearance of files and unavailability of witnesses and complainants.
The International Herald Tribune, a global edition of the New York Times, in September 2007 ran a report indicating that Uganda’s judiciary is poorly financed, thus compromisable. In the financial year 2007/08, the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs was allocated Shs 30 Billion, which apparently is inadequate to cater for among other thing, the 36 courts countrywide.
John Arutu explains. “Shs 6 million monthly is allocated to run the High Court in Kampala. This money is not only used to pay transport refunds to witnesses who testify, but also to pay defense lawyers who defend accused persons who cannot afford legal representation and buy stationary for the court. This amount has never been amended for years yet more and more cases are registered daily, thus more expenditure is incurred by the courts.â€
Not all the cases in the courts of law should be in court. Cases termed as misdemeanor, or minor cases could be settled out of court. Instead, they are pushed into the judicial system burdening its operation. Luzira prison, like any other prison is full of petty criminals like chicken thieves, pick pockets, small debt defaulters and many others. These types of cases could be settled out of court between the accused persons and the complaints.
In the United Kingdom, for example minor cases are settled within the first 24 hours of their registration. Unless the accused is a repeated offender, first offenders are let off with fines and in some cases a few hours of community service. In Uganda then, Local Council courts need to be empowered in this context.
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