Hon. Justice John E Keitirima
KAMPALA – 17 March 2015:\r\nCrime rate in northern Uganda is now at one of its highest, a situation the\r\noutgoing Gulu High Court resident judge is attributing to the former rebel\r\nreturnees.
Hon. Justice John Eudes\r\nKeitirima, who has been transferred to the Masaka High Court docket, says the\r\nex-Lord’s Resistance Army rebels are responsible for the wave of crime in the\r\narea.
"It appears that the after\r\neffect of the war is having its toll on this part of the country. The\r\nex-fighters seem to be involved in a lot of crime. Government needs to do more\r\nin terms of reintegrating these people to fit in the society very well,” said\r\nJustice Keitirima, who served in Gulu for almost two years.
"These people (the ex-combatants)\r\ndon’t seem to care about being imprisoned. I think that is the life they are\r\nused to, having lived in the bush for some time.”
He says hundreds of rebel\r\nreturnees within the age bracket of 20 to 40 years are awaiting trial on mainly\r\non cases of defilement and murders over land disputes.
Criminal case backlog in\r\nGulu stands at 506 committed cases awaiting trial at the High Court. Over\r\nShs 500 million is required to clear the cases in at least 13 Criminal Sessions\r\nin the system where the present Judiciary allocates 40 criminal cases per judge\r\nper session. On average, Shs 1 million is spent on each criminal trial to\r\nfacilitate state briefs, witnesses’ transportation as well as allowances for\r\nthe key participants in the case.
Together with the Hon. Lady Justice\r\nMargaret Mutonyi, who is succeeding him (Hon. Justice Keitirima), a lot has so far\r\nbeen done to reduce the civil cases drastically.
He however, says land cases\r\ntoo remain a challenge in the north. "Most of the land is not under\r\nregistration and ascertaining ownership is quite a challenge. So if you\r\nstrictly apply the law, you may seem very irrelevant in the social\r\ncircumstances in the area,” he says.
In a short transfer memo of\r\nMarch 13, 2015, the Principal Judge, Hon. Justice Dr. Yorokamu Bamwine, thanked\r\nHon. Justice Keitirima for his "illustrious service” to the Gulu Circuit and\r\nwished him well at the new station, where he will be beefing up Hon. Lady Justice\r\nMargaret Oumo-Oguli in Masaka.
About Judge Keitirima
He is a career judicial\r\nofficer who joined the Judiciary as a Grade One Magistrate in 1995 and served\r\nin the courts of Kabale (1995-99) and Ntungamo (1999-2000). He was promoted to\r\nSenior Grade One Magistrate and posted to the Magistrates Court of Makindye in\r\nKampala (2001-01), served as a Personal Assistant to the then Chief Justice, Hon. Justice Benjamin Odoki (2001-02), and was later posted to Rukungiri as a Chief\r\nMagistrate (2003).
He was then assigned to the\r\nCommercial Court as an Assistant Registrar (2004-07), before taking a one year\r\nstudy leave to Kent University in the UK to do his master’s degree studies in\r\nInternational Commercial Law. Upon return, he was promoted to the position of\r\nDeputy Registrar and served in the Land Division of the High Court (2008-09),\r\nAnti-Corruption Division (2009-11), and Civil Division (2011-13), before being\r\nappointed High Court judge in June 2013.
For further information, please contact:
Solomon\r\nMuyita
Senior Communications Officer
The Judiciary - Public Affairs &\r\nCommunication Office
Mobile: +256 (0) 77 220 0089
Email: smuyita[at]judicature.go.ug
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Posted 17th, March 2015
