Deputy CJ flags case backlogs

Deputy Chief Justice Richard Buteera has asked the government to recruit more staff in the police’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to expedite the investigation of cases. The Monitor reports that he attributed the case backlog to skeleton staff at CID. ‘The CID is understaffed; the training is not probably at the level that we desire. We need to increase training of CID officers, their numbers, co-ordinate CID with the DPP’s office so that prosecutions are quick to do quality work so that the courts get the ability to dispose of the cases quickly,’ he said. He urged the public to assist too. ‘The public needs to be aware that courts are not going to decide cases until witnesses come to court when summoned. So we all must participate because justice is to the benefit of the whole society not to the judiciary, DPP or the court alone,’ he added. The Deputy Chief Justice also said President Yoweri Museveni’s proposal to deny capital offenders bail was a matter for Parliament to decide and the judiciary could only participate by giving their views when approached. He added: ‘It is normally the duty of Parliament to amend the laws, including the Constitution, and that discussion shall guide us and the new law that is put in place shall be implemented by the judiciary after it has been passed. For now the law is as it is, we have the Constitution as it is, and we await the amendment when it happens.’

Full report in The Monitor