Judges should retire with 100% benefits - Museveni

By Vision Reporter

President Yoweri Museveni has said there is no serious dialogue between the three arms of government; the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, to talk about strategy and ideology of the country.

“We only talk about sharing resources which is not enough. We must understand, what does the State want to do? There is a weakness of harmony and orientation of strategy,” he said.

The President was speaking to over 80 judges whom he hosted at State House Entebbe.

President Yoweri Museveni addressing Judges after posing for a group photograph at State House Entebbe.

Responding to a presentation by the Chief Justice Bart Magunda Katureebe, on the transformation of the Judiciary for National Development, President Museveni cited UPE and USE that were initiated by government following a steady tax collection regime.

“We thought having these children in school was unavoidable. When the tax collection improved from 2.8billion in 1986 to 728billion in 1997, we started UPE. The number of children in school jumped from the initial 2.5million to 8.8million. The Problem is that with policies and prioritization, the judiciary is not involved that is why they don’t get the logic and factors taken into account,” he said.

The President assured the Judges of state security after their retirement and said judicial officers should retire with 100% of their normal service benefits. He said this is a cost effective way of addressing the welfare of the judicial officers.

He urged them to improvise in line with housing for the courts and proposed institutional housing for judicial service officers.

President Museveni said that the NRM Government was fully committed to providing vehicles for all judges and Magistrates in the country and proposed that they establish a SACCO that government can facilitate. He said that the government would soon fund medical check-up for them in health facilities of their choice within the country.

Museveni said government will support the sh 36b five year ICT strategic plan to roll out a robust case management system providing for E-filing to reduce timelines and loss of files.  

The Chief Justice Bart Katureebe, commended President Museveni for eliminating extra Judicial killings in the country. He however, pointed out that the judiciary has rental arrears of sh3b and that the Supreme Court may be up for eviction if nothing is done.