The soft underbelly of Uganda’s justice system

The justice system of Uganda looks at a collaboration of all agencies, establishments and institutions responsible for administering or enforcing the law in both criminal and civil matters.

This network of government agencies and establishments is responsible for upholding and enforcing the law within a society, and this is done by the courts of judicature, police force, prisons, Inspectorate of Government.

These institutions and agencies derive their legality and mandate to operationalize from the Constitution and other domestic laws. These laws give a hierarchy or structure of how they shall administer their various constitutional and statutorily guaranteed mandates.

Justice looks at the moral and legal wellbeing of people and this entails treating people fairly, impartially, and with equality under the established international, regional and domestic laws.

In the application of justice, the established agencies and institutions are supposed to dispense justice without bias or prejudice, offering a solution with no regard of wealth or background and most importantly, administering clear, consistent rules that protect individual rights.

Justice cuts across various areas and systems within Uganda and these include retributive justice which deals with punishing wrongdoers with a punishment proportionate to the severity of those wrongs, procedural justice which encompasses fairness in decision making processes and enforcement of rules, and restorative justice which aims to repair the harm caused by wrongful acts and this emphasizes healing, reconciliation and accountability.

In the administration of justice and its application, the general public is expected to not only learn from the enforcement of the due process but to also circumscribe themselves collectively and completely from the reoccurrence of these acts. In simple terms, 1 + 1 = 2 not 1 + 1 = 11.

The justice system in Uganda is seemingly an illusion of success rather than a reality with so many hurdles related to excessively delayed hearings and determination of court cases, malfeasance, legislative rot which deals with the successful legislators more often than not conditionally offering their mandate at a cost.

In the pursuit of justice, the judiciary through the courts of law have rendered decisions in various arenas ranging from civil to criminal law. These judicial decisions often fail to translate into practical lessons and systemic reforms because of the gap between the legal theory and real-world enforcement.

The failure of various successful parties in cases in realizing the fruits of those decisions ranges from various causes which include prolonged established systems of execution of court decrees, political and executive resistance, financial constraints, caseload crisis causing the various litigants to lose faith in the judiciary since the justice sought is denied because it is delayed, and most of the times direct non-compliance by the judgment debtors in civil cases.

The gradual erosion of Uganda’s justice system has been evident in various reoccurrence of offences despite various attempts by the judiciary to adjudicate on them and these include murder evident in the very recent maternal filicide perpetrated by a one Dorothy Wamwoyo who took the lives of her two children, murder of a waitress called Jovia Namuwulya, murder of David Owori of the SC Villa football team, which are all felonies whose statutory penalty is death or imprisonment for life.

The statutory penalties of the various offenses detailed in the Penal Code Act and other principal laws is supposed to strike fear in any intending perpetrators to deter from even thinking of causing that act, but no.

President Museveni has time and again preached about patriotism as a practical tool for the survival and prosperity of Uganda. The Fountain of Honor has linked patriotism to national security, presupposing that a deep sense of patriotism among security officials and citizens is the ultimate weapon against violent crime, murders or even terrorism.

The chief of defence forces has also publicly condemned all unlawful and violent crimes in Uganda, and against corruption by launching a high-profile anti-corruption campaign centered on military oversight, zero tolerance for graft and direct threats against high profile corrupt officials. These, nevertheless, reinforce the mandate of the three arms of Government to ensure the ends of justice are met.

The author is a concerned citizen.

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