Khauka appointed judiciary technical advisor

Andrew Khauka a senior legal officer at the Uganda Law Reform Commission (ULRC) has been appointed Technical Advisor to the Judiciary.

He was appointed in December 2015.

According to the Chief Registrar of Courts, Paul Gadenya, Khauka was appointed on recommendation by the ULRC to enhance effective delivery of justice in the country.

"The new officer of the judiciary will support them in a number of initiatives that the institution is undertaking for the efficient administration of justice," Gadenya said.

Gadenya said that Khauka will support the establishment of the sentencing council to facilitate the process and delivery of sentencing guidelines as well as supporting the current plea bargaining project with the mandate to ensure that all courts adopt it and develop monitoring and evaluation tools on the guidelines.

"He will act as an advisor to the Chief Justice, Deputy Chief Justice, Chief Registrar and Secretary to the Judiciary on the harmonization and transformation of the judiciary," Gadenya said.

Khauka will also be charged with preparing a process path for mainstreaming and ground of reforms to all court structures and systems as well as carrying an impact assessment for the reform.

He is responsible for carrying out an organizational functional analysis, developing draft proposals on the appropriate reforms and projects to close gaps created due to inadequate government funding.

Currently, he is the project manager of the Memorandum of understanding between Justice Law and Order Sector and Pepperdine University which seeks to promote access to justice in Uganda.

Since, 2010, Khauka has been instrumental in the development of guidelines that made Uganda the first country in Africa with sentencing guidelines.

He also played a pivotal role in development of guidelines and rolling out plea bargaining, take evidence by the video link as well as managing the mid-term review process of the Judiciary Strategic Investment Plan (JSIP) III.

In 2015, he was appointed lead coordinator on the committee to review procedural laws and secretary to Judiciary's National Court Case census.