HE Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (C-seated) with Hon. Justice Bart Katureebe (L-seated) and Hon. Justice Steven Kavuma(R- seated) while addressing Hon. Justices and Judges at State House in Entebbe.
President Yoweri Museveni has assured\r\nthe Hon. Judges of state security after their retirement and said judicial\r\nofficers should retire with 100% of their normal service benefits.
The President was on September 2, 2015\r\nspeaking to over 63 judges whom he hosted at State House in Entebbe, said this\r\nis a cost effective way of addressing the welfare of the judicial officers.
He said there is no serious dialogue\r\nbetween the three arms of government; the Executive, the Legislature and the\r\nJudiciary, to talk about strategy and ideology of the country.
"We only talk about sharing resources\r\nwhich is not enough. We must understand, what does the State want to do?\r\nThere’s a weakness of harmony and orientation of strategy,” he said.
Responding to a presentation by the\r\nChief Justice, Hon. Justice Bart M. Katureebe, on the transformation of the\r\nJudiciary for National Development, President Museveni cited UPE and USE that\r\nwere initiated by government following a steady tax collection regime.
"We thought having these children in\r\nschool was unavoidable. When the tax collection improved from UShs2.8 billion\r\nin 1986 to UShs728 billion in 1997, we started UPE. The number of children in\r\nschool jumped from the initial UShs2.5million to UShs8.8million. The Problem is\r\nthat with policies and prioritization, the Judiciary is not involved that is\r\nwhy they don’t get the logic and factors taken into account,” he said.
The President said with the tax\r\ncollection now at UShs12, 000 billion (12 trillion), government has invested in\r\ninfrastructure development in the education, health, roads and electricity\r\nsectors.
"Public service increased teachers from\r\n80,000 to 160,000 with increased classrooms. There was load shedding which has\r\nstopped. We were spending very little of our money on infrastructure and\r\ndepended on donors,” he said.
The President said government now spends\r\nUShs3, 000 billion on roads, UShs1, 700 billion on electricity and quite a bit\r\non the army.
President Museveni said that government\r\nhas put more efforts in the construction of roads in all parts of the country\r\nusing locally generated resources. He said the roads would have a big impact on\r\nthe national economy because they would serve for a long time and provide an\r\nopportunity to address other important sectors that need to be funded.
"We spend quite a bit on the army to be\r\nable to build a strong army although soldiers get low wages. Amin soldiers were\r\nwell paid but had no weapons. But we said weapons first. We brought peace\r\ncheaply with most of our soldiers sleeping in Maama ingia pole. If we did not\r\ndo this, we would have our country run by the United Nations,” he said, adding\r\nthat peace is enabling Uganda to get more money.
"I can speak authoritatively that we\r\nhave one institution that has given you exemplary service cheaply. It’s not a\r\nstory, it’s not something I read in a book, I have it here on good record,” he\r\nsaid.
He urged the Judiciary to improvise in\r\nline with housing for the courts and proposed institutional housing for judicial\r\nservice officers.
President Museveni said that the\r\nGovernment was fully committed to providing vehicles for all judges and\r\nMagistrates in the country and proposed that they establish a SACCO that\r\ngovernment can facilitate. He said that the government would soon fund medical\r\ncheck-up for them in health facilities of their choice within the country.
HE Museveni said government will support\r\nthe UShs36 billion five year ICT strategic plan to roll out a robust case\r\nmanagement system providing for E-filing to reduce timelines and loss of files.
The Chief Justice, Hon. Justice Bart\r\nKatureebe, commended President Museveni for eliminating extra Judicial killings\r\nin the country. He however, pointed out that the judiciary has rental arrears\r\nof UShs3 billion and that the Supreme Court may be up for eviction if nothing is\r\ndone.
Hon. Katureebe said with a 46% growth in\r\nthe budget from UShs.63billion in 2012/13 to UShs.92 billion in 2014/15,\r\nperformance also increased by 49% from 102,000 cases in 2010/11 to 152,000\r\ncases disposed of in 2014/15.
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Posted 7th, September 2015
