(L-R) Mr. Shawn Kohl, Mr. Kawuka, Hon. Justice Kiryabwire, Ms Debbi Hobbs and Ms Rosette Musoke during the dialogue
Kampala. A walk in any court registry will leave many court users thinking twice about the quality of services they will get from the corridors of justice. Piles of files are heaped on the floor, most caked in dust while the others show signs of tear and wear.
With such record keeping, it comes as no surprise that sometimes,some court files are stolen or destroyed.
However, this is bound to change with the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Justice, Law and Order Sector and International Justice Mission (IJM).Part of the agreement will see the registries cleaned up.
On January 30, 2018 a team from IJM met with Court of Appeal Justice, Hon. Justice Geoffrey Kiryabwire to agree on a roadmap of the reorganization of the court's registry. The Deputy Chief Justice designated Hon. Justice Kiryabwire to coordinate the project.
As part of the initiatives to clean up the registry, IJM will help the judiciary digitize court registries.
For a start, IJM will reorganize the registries of Court of Appeal, Family Division and Mbale High Court to make them more functional and eventually spread out to other courts.
"The International Justice Mission (IJM) has come on board to help streamline court records to make it difficult to steal records, increase efficiency of the courts, increase access to the poor and vulnerable groups to court services," the Chief Registrar, HW Gadenya Paul Wolimbwa said.
He is optimistic that this new initiative will increase public confidence in the justice system, hence curbing petty corruption cases especially in registries.
The IJM team which comprised IJM National Director, Mr. Shawn Kohl, Justice Systems Support Specialist, Ms. Rosette N. Musoke and the Program's manager, Ms. Debbi Hobbs largely discussed findings of a study that IJM conducted in the Court of Appeal last year.
Also in attendance was Judiciary Technical Advisor, Mr. Andrew Khaukha, who project manages the MOU on behalf of JLOS institutions.
Posted 1st, February 2018
