The Judiciary has revealed that one of the issues to be handled on their first ever National Court Open Day is to interact with public regarding the strategies the justice system needs to implore so as to eliminate case backlog.
According to the Judiciary Public Relations Officer James Jumire Ereemye Mawanda, it is also intended to promote sensitization highlighting the services the Judiciary offers , emphasizing mechanisms being re-engineered to improve service delivery and receiving feedback from the public to get areas of improvement from the public.
He said on the National Court Open Day which is fixed for April 15th 2024 at Kololo Independence Grounds will attract all stakeholders in the Justice system including the public, police , prisons , police , Prosecutors and lawyers .
They will interact with the public such that they can understand their role in the chain of the court system and processes.
Mawanda stated that the Judiciary is making an accountability and it will sensitize Court users so as to be able to obtain feedback from them adding that the National Court Open Day is aimed at further strengthening the independence of the Judiciary enshrined in the Constitution.
While addressing the Media on Thursday at the Judiciary Headquarters in Kampala, Mawanda indicated that in order for this to be done effectively, the Judiciary has been conducting Court open days in various places across the country. However , given the feedback obtained from the ground to places they have been, Mawanda said Judiciary found it fit that the same should be extended to a bigger group of the public by having a national Court open day such that different courts can show case what they do to the people.
The National Court open day is brought under the theme, a people Centered Approach to Justice.
The Secretary for the National Court Open Day High Court Registrar Mary Keitesi said that the Courts which will be participating will not have business that day , however all the registries will be open for court users who want to file new cases and to get new dates for their cases.
According to the Annual Performance Report of the Judiciary for 2023, the judiciary had a case backlog of 43,617 cases that have been in the system for many years. A case is considered backlog in Uganda when it has spent more than two years in the court system without being concluded.
