KAMPALA– The Judiciary of Uganda, has finalized preparations for the second National Court Census which will involve counting all cases with in the country’s Judicial system.
On addressing the press on Tuesday at Judiciary headquarters, Richard Buteera , the Deputy Chief Justice revealed that this initiative is aimed at collecting data on caseloads and case management processes with the aim of addressing persistent challenges, such as case backlog, limited access to timely justice, as well as insufficient resource allocation within the Courts.
“Ten (10) Years after the first Court Case Census, the Judiciary is set to carry out its second National Court Case Census to collect, analyze, and present data on the caseloads and case management processes across all Courts in Uganda, considering all the cases pending in the different Courts as at January 12, 2025.” Remarked Buteera.
He also pointed out , that during these three days, all registries of all the Courts will remain open for those filing Court pleadings in civil matters, Criminal charges will be filed and Courts may take plea. However, Courts will not fix cases for hearing on those days.
“The Previous case census results, gave us the right number of cases pending in the system. We have introduced a number of measures (initiatives) to tackle case backlog and these have been successful basing on statistics.” DCJ added
Her Worship Sarah Kaitesi, the Acting Chief Registrar , noted that this exercise is going to be conducted by the Judiciary’s Case Management Committee chaired by the Hon. Deputy Chief Justice.
“The exercise is not going to be office based, we are going to be in the field to ascertain the existence of these files.The teams have are structured according to court circuits in the country and we are not going to leave any court unattended to.”
She added , that they are conducting a physical data collection exercise because the ECMIS and CAS system which would have helped them in this exercise, are not being used by all courts country wide due to lack of stable internet connectivity and uninterrupted electricity supply.
The outcome of this exercise, will be compiled into a comprehensive Report which will be discussed by different stakeholders and the Public.
It will also contain the detailed analysis of the caseload and case backlog situation across all levels of Courts in Uganda and Key challenges and bottlenecks in case management.
