Museveni tells Judges to use Available Resources to Ensure Justice
President Yoweri Museveni has asked Judges to use the Judiciary's existing resources to provide justice for all Ugandans.
Museveni tells Judges to use Available Resources to Ensure Justice
President Yoweri Museveni has asked Judges to use the Judiciary’s existing resources to provide justice for all Ugandans.
The President made the remarks while officiating at the opening ceremony of the 24th Annual Judges’ Conference, which was held at the Mestil Hotel in Kampala.
The focus of the four-day event is “The Judiciary Transformation Agenda: Enhanced Access to Justice.”
“What happens if the money is insufficient? Is it true that a country without money has no justice? Is that what you’re getting at? My response is that when we were in the bush, dominating the Luweero Triangle, we were carrying out genuine justice without the use of money.
I have proof because I was the Chief Justice and President of Luweero at the time. I was blending the two. We had justice but not enough money. I informed these folks that it is not appropriate to claim that a country cannot protect itself because it lacks funds. “With or without money, we will protect ourselves,” President Museveni declared.
The President made the statements in response to Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-plea Dollo’s that the Judiciary’s budget be increased so that the arm’s infrastructure can be improved and more judicial officers can be recruited to deal with the judicial issues they face.
“Your Excellency, we aspire to have a robust Judiciary that is accountable and capable of delivering quality and timely justice in accordance with our Vision, Mission, and Strategic Plan when these reforms are funded and implemented,” Justice Alfonse Owiny – Dollo addressed Gen. Museveni.
However, according to President Museveni, the Judiciary must now plan properly for the finances allotted to them in order to carry out their duty, as the Government considers additional ways to increase their budget in the near future.
“In this situation, I want to separate strategy and philosophy from the actual choice because when I met with the Chief Justice the other year, we set a target of Shs800 billion for the Judiciary since by that time, the Judiciary was collecting a lot of money.”
“For us, we believe that we can have the army even without money; we can have justice even when we don’t have money or don’t have enough money but the way we stand now, we actually have some money. It is simply a matter of planning, not ideology, because if the ideology is ‘no money, no justice,’ I do not agree because certain countries do not have any money at all.”
The President also challenged the Judges to accept and share with their colleagues the key concepts of the National Resistance Movement Government of Patriotism, Pan-Africanism, Socio-economic Transformation, and Democracy if they want to be a part of the system’s development goal.
“These are the principles that we promoted. Some of our colleagues used to tell us that we were wrong, but history has proven that we were correct. Because of those ideals, when we came to power, we were able to develop a national political force as well as a powerful army, which is why Uganda has been calm for so long,” he continued.
The Chief Justice of South Africa, His Lordship Hon. Justice Raymond M.M. Zondo, Hon. Justice Angelina Mensah-Homiah of Ghana’s Court of Appeal, Hon. Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe of Ghana’s High Court, Ambassadors, and Ugandan judicial authorities were also present.
