By Moses Mulondo

Judges from the East African Community member states are undergoing a three-day training aimed at equipping them with modern skills discharging their duties expeditiously to solve the backlog problem.

According to a statement,  the East African Community secretariat, Chief Justices, Judge Presidents, Principal Judges, Heads of High Court Divisions and all judges with Administrative Responsibilities are being equipped with leadership skills advancing justice to a higher level in their respective countries.

“The aim of the training is to enhance leadership and management skills in the judiciary as well as in promoting legal and judicial knowledge and harmonization of processes in the judicial sector in the regional bloc,” the secretariat said in the statement.

Addressing participants, the EAC Deputy Secretary General in charge of Finance and Administration Mr. Jean Claude Nsengiyumva hailed the East African Judicial Education Committee for the tireless efforts in putting together the training programme for the highest cadre of the national judiciaries, with particular emphasis on leadership skills.

He said the training was a very important step in operationalizing the provision of Article 126 of the EAC Treaty which sets out the scope of co-operation in judicial and legal affairs to include approximation and harmonization of legal learning and certification; encouraging the standardization of the judgments of the Courts within the Community; promoting exchange of legal and judicial knowledge; and the revival of the East African Law Reports and journals among other wider objectives of the Community.

Nsengiyumva urged the participants to use the forum to identify modern innovations to promote efficiency and effectiveness in the judicial systems of the Partner States so as to positively impact on their mandate which is effective and timely delivery of justice to people of East Africa.

The Deputy Secretary General said the training was providing a perfect opportunity for the Members of the judiciary to learn from and to share the different leadership experiences from their respective Partner States.

He encouraged the East African states to adopt judicial practices both from the common law regime and civil law regime.

“We hope to learn from the Chief Justices lessons from the common law regime as practiced by the Republic of Kenya; Republic of Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania as well as that of civil law regime practiced by the Republic of Rwanda and the Republic of Burundi,” Nsengiyuma said.

The programme has been attended by Chief Justices of the Supreme Courts of the EAC Partner States; the President and the Principal Judge of the East African Court of Justice; Judges of the High Court and Heads of High Court Divisions of the Partner States, Principal Judges of the Partner States, Chairmen of the National Judicial Training Committees, and the Registrar of the East African Court of Justice Prof. John Ruhangisa, among others.