The newly appointed Attorney General Dr Sam Mayanja has disclosed that he is going to prioritize a number of issues as the chief government legal advisor and head of the bar coordinating Uganda Law Society, the Executive and the Judiciary.
He stated that for a longtime, President Museveni has been approving everything brought to his table by judiciary top leadership who assure him of extending justice to all Ugandans by increasing the number of judicial officers from Grade One magistrates to Supreme Court justices, increasing their monthly salaries, accommodation, transport, and unlike other public servants, and they are always considered as a special category of people and retire as kings.
He said that government has improved the judicial package to the extent that in East Africa, Uganda has the best paid judicial officers even in retirement given thay some of them go with three quarters of their current emoluments up to their death.
“Now that you have run out of excuses why is there still backlog? Why are they not performing? You have been given everything. The package has been improved. The numbers have increased. The accommodation has been better. So now what?” Mayanja said.
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Mayanja further expressed dissatisfaction with the way judges are recruited in the judiciary. He disclosed that there should be an open process where by lawyers whose performance has been excellent in their studies and with unquestionably character are allowed to participate in the vetting of judges allowing them to give their opinion given that they are recruited to exercise their power on their behalf.
Mayanja said that he is not happy with the ongoing practice of recruiting judges on probation for two years before they are confirmed noting that their status affects their performance and complicates jurisprudence. He pleaded with senior counsel Isaac Ssemakadde’s Uganda Law Society to lead the fight against such practice. However, it should be remembered that the practice was challenged before the Constitutional Court which declared it illegal but the former Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka who initiated it appealed at the Supreme Court.
Mayanja, a former State minister for Lands stated that the failure to have an open process of recruiting judges is the reason why there is a misunderstanding between lawyers and judges noting that even the former Attorney General Kiwanuka admitted it at the previous new law year.
As an alternative for fighting heavy case backlog, Mayanja recommended a proposal to appoint temporary senior and respected lawyers to the judiciary to help in clearing the huge backlog and once they are done, they return to their chambers as career judicial officers proceed with their usual work. He promised that he is going to start where Kiwanuka stopped on solving the misunderstandings between lawyers, judges and the executive noting that such misunderstandings cost lawyers.
He added that it is because of the said misunderstanding that judges abuse their powers to the extent of imprisoning lawyers on contempt of court charges instead of punishing them by suspending them for a day.
He cited the embarrassing scenario where a high judge now sitting on the court of appeal got annoyed by the actions of the lawyer and directed him to pay a fine of Shs300m or face imprisonment for eighteen months on contempt of court charges.
“What are you trying to demonstrate? When you are dispensing justice, you are not looking at the lawyer in front of you. You are looking at the person he represents. You are looking at justice itself,” he said.
He further promised lawyers that he is going to use his office to help them reclaim their prestige and public status.
He however warned that he will not allow none lawyers to deal with land registration, sit on labour tribunals, or be deployed in local government to deal with technical legal issues.
“A shabby lawyer is not one of us. A poor lawyer is not one of us. Every lawyer is intelligent. Every lawyer is smart. We must maintain those standards.
When you address the court, even if you have lost, you say, with due respect, I differ. That is part of the profession. The ethos of professionalism must always be encouraged,” he said.
He said that when he was still lands minister, he named only six categories of people who should handle land transactions in the registry and these include advocates with valid practicing certificates, architects, surveyors, valuers, and bank officers at officer level.
He assured government lawyers that he will also make sure that they enjoy the fruits of their sleepless nights reading law by increasing their pay.
He noted that they get demonised when handling multibillion cases but at the end of the month, they are paid little money even though government wins.
He however warned government lawyers on absenting themselves from offices and courts which results into government losing billions of monies in court cases.
