The head of the Anti-Corruption court, Justice Lawrence Gidudu, has blamed superior courts for curtailing efforts by his court to prosecute corrupt individuals.
Justice Gidudu expressed his views during a Friday meeting between High court judges and the judiciary case backlog reduction committee to discuss how to stem the incessant accumulation of pending cases. Currently, the judiciary has 111,409 pending cases.
In his trademark take-no-prisoners style, Justice Gidudu said that whenever individuals are charged at the Anti-Corruption court, they rush to superior courts where they get orders staying the trial. This, he said, is helping in clogging the court system.
“All sorts of orders come from the Court of Appeal, the civil division of the High court and courts from upcountry staying proceedings. This cannot help in decreasing the case backlog,” Justice Gidudu said.
To drive his point home, Justice Gidudu pointed to a 2013 order by the Constitutional court that temporarily halted the trial of Hassan Basajjabalaba. The businessman and his brother Muzamiru Basajjabalaba were charged with tax evasion of Shs 20 billion. But the duo ran to the Constitutional court, saying that their trial was unconstitutional. To-date, the court has never given its judgement.
The judge also cited a 2013 Constitutional court order that stayed the trial of seven Kyambogo University officials who were charged with abuse of office, insubordination and conflict of interest at the Anti-Corruption court. The group petitioned the Constitutional court challenging the legality of their interdiction and prosecution. However, three years down the road, the court is yet to pronounce itself on the matter.
DEFIANCE IN COURT
Justice Gidudu told the meeting, chaired by principal judge Yorokamu Bawmine, that he has had enough of the orders.
“I have made a decision to defy those orders,” he said, “If a decision comes yet the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions] wasn’t party to the proceedings, I will just continue with the trial. We cannot allow this to happen.”
Justice Egonda-Ntende dubbed the orders, which are often issued by the Constitutional court, where he is a member, as “idiotic.” He tasked Justice Gidudu to develop a list of the cases whose prosecution has been derailed by such orders.
“How can courts shoot at each other?” he asked. “This should stop because if not, then case backlog cannot be dealt with.”
MUKONO HIGH COURT
Mukono resident judge Margaret Mutonyi wondered how she could deal with the huge case backlog in the district yet she is the only judge. Justice Mutonyi decried the fact that she is operating in the Mukono chief magistrate’s premises since High court was instituted in Mukono earlier this year.
“Mukono as district needs three judges yet I am the only one,” she said. Justice Mutonyi also said litigants in Mukono still file their civil cases in Jinja yet Mukono High court circuit was created to reduce the cases being filed in Jinja.
dkiyonga@observer.ug