By John Agaba

The East African Court of Justice (EACJ) has opened a sub registry in Kampala to ease the filing of cases to the court in Arusha, registrar Dr. John Ruhangisa has said.

The opening of the sub-registry follows a decision of the Council of Ministers that the EACJ opens sub-registries in all member states.

Ruhangisa was addressing Journalists at the media center on Monday. Ruhangisa said that the Kampala sub-registry was third after the one in Kigali and Dar es Salaam. The one in Kigali was opened on August 10. The one in Dar-es-Salaam opened on September 7. Next would be Nairobi, then Bujumbura.

“The sub-registry has been equipped with EAJS’s staff who will forward the complaints to Arusha and when need arises; EACJ’s judges will travel to Kampala to arbitrate the cases,’’ said the registrar.

He added that the opening of the sub-registry made the Court’s services easily accessible and affordable to Ugandans who were finding it hard to travel to Arusha to file cases and then go back for the hearing.

The Kampala sub-registry will be based at the Supreme Court in Kololo suburbs.

The EACJ was formulated in November 2001 as one of the organs of the East African Community. Its role is to settle disputes arising from the cooperation treaty the five member states agreed on.

Since its inception, Ruhangisa said, the court has received about 92 cases, settling 60. 32 cases are pending.