Edward Anyoli
15 October 2009
Kampala — THE Judiciary should be free of political pressure, the African Peer Review Mechanism has said.
In a report to Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki, his deputy Laetitia Kikonyogo, and Principal Judge James Ogoola on Wednesday, the mechanism said political influence undermines the independence of the Judiciary.
"The Executive uses its control and disbursement of resources to the Judiciary and the Legislature as a veiled method of exerting influence," said Deo Nkunzingoma, who presented the report.
Nkunzingoma said since resources for the Judiciary come through the justice and constitutional affairs ministry, it takes away the institution's independence.
The mechanism is a monitoring body for the new partnership for African development on democracy, political, economic and corporate governance.
The group called on the Government to avail funds for the construction of a Supreme Court, saying large sums of money are paid to the Buganda Kingdom as rent for the court premises.
The group also asked for the appointment of more judges to dispose of the backlog of cases pending in various courts.
The chairman of the Institute of Judicial Studies, David Wangututsi, said failure to promote judges had undermined the independence of the Judiciary.
Odoki said as much as the Judiciary gets its funding from the Government, it has always been independent.
"I don't think the independence of the Judiciary is being undermined. Judges write judgments without anybody's influence," he said.
He said plans are under way to construct premises for the constitutional and supreme courts to reduce on the costs of rent.
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