AG Nyombi explains Odoki return to office

SATURDAY VISION

By Anne Mugisa & Raymond Baguma

KAMPALA - The Attorney General, Peter Nyombi, has confirmed that Justice Benjamin Odoki and three other retired judges of the Supreme Court have returned to office.

He, however, refuted reports that Odoki was re-appointed Chief Justice, as had earlier been reported.

“The issue of the Chief Justice is still being handled. I think you people are being hasty in the things you are writing. Not until that instrument is signed can anyone say a Chief Justice has been appointed. And right now that instrument is not there,” Nyombi said.

The other judges who have returned in acting capacity are Galdino Okello, John Wilson Tsekooko and Christine Kitumba.

By press time, Saturday Vision was yet to confirm whether Odoki had accepted the re-appointment.

Justice Odoki retired in March after clocking the retirement age of 70 years and serving for 12 years. He left office in June after a three-month extension, which retired judges are given to complete pending work.

Since his retirement, Odoki has been serving on the Swaziland Supreme Court on a part-time basis and participated in formulating the Swaziland constitution.

Nyombi recently said the Constitution provided for the re-appointment of a judge who has retired on account of age.

Article 142 (2) states, in part, that “the President may, acting on the advice of the Judicial Service Commission, appoint a person qualified for appointment as a Justice of the Supreme Court or a Justice of Appeal or a Judge of the High Court to act as such a justice or judge even though that person has attained the age prescribed for retirement in respect of that office.”

In April, Justice Odoki wrote a concept paper making a case for raising the retirement age of High Court judges in Uganda from 65 to 70 and Supreme Court to from 70 to 75 years.