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President Museveni, will on February 09th 2024 inaugurate the Judiciary’s twin-tower office block.
Construction of the seven-storey twin appellate courts buildings with two basement floor parking for 226 vehicles, started in November 2019.
Construction was done by Seyani Brothers & Co Limited for UGX63.9 billion and was fully funded by the Government of Uganda.
The office complex hosts customised courthouses with modern courtrooms, chambers for the justices, a gym and a restaurant, among other amenities.
The idea of building the Appellate courts was first mooted in 1999 but did not start until 2019 under Permanent Secretary, Pius Bigirimana’s reign. It is one of the key initiatives being undertaken to enhance service level expectations as well as physical access to justice.
One of the towers hosts the Court of Appeal building which among others has 20 chambers for justices, five board rooms, four court halls, three registries and three chambers for the registrars. The second tower, which hosts the Supreme Court houses 12 chambers for justices, three court halls, three chambers for registrars and three registries amongst other facilities.
The Judiciary’s new home, which is one of Pius Bigirimana’s key achievements in his 3 years at the judiciary, is expected to save UGX6 billion in rent, but above all improve the efficiency of the judiciary and access to justice. It is also a cog in the Bigirimana-led strategy of improving access to justice as well as reducing case backlog by increasing staffing, physical infrastructure and digitalisation.
According to the Judiciary’s Annual Performance Report FY 2022/2023, at the close of the financial year, the pending caseload was 156,349 cases, of which 42,960 cases (27.48%) were backlog⏤ cases older than two years in the system. The Court of Appeal had the highest number of case backlogs, at 59% (4837 out of 8,198), followed by the Supreme Court, at 46.5% (323 of 695 cases).
To partly solve this problem, parliament recently passed the Judicature Act (Amendment) Bill, 2023, allowing the increase of Supreme Court justices from 11 to 21, but rejected the proposal to increase the justices of the Court of Appeal from 15 to 56, providing for only 35 Judges.
The monetary value of cases in courts as of 31st January 2022 stood at UGX 7.4 trillion with the Commercial Court alone having over 6,849 unresolved cases worth UGX 7 trillion. This data does not include cases in the Court of Appeal and cases whose monetary value was not stated in the pleadings.
Estimates have put the total monetary value of cases in the court statement at UGX8 trillion by July 2023.