Judicial Service Commission Gleefully Adopts Proposals by Deputy RDC Ham Mizamil and LC5 Alfred Okuonzi to Improve Performance of Judiciary.

The Arua District Deputy RDC Mr Ham Mizamil Ezama and LC V Chairman Hon Alfred Okuonzi have on Monday 19-12-2022 1pm held a meeting with Judicial Service Commission officials to find out the challenges hampering the justice system in the District.

The judicial service commission delegation led by Ms Atukunda Lillian and Ms Twinonyisha Patience asked the Deputy RDC and LC V Chairman to hint to them the challenges affecting effecting justice system.

When the Judicial service commission delegation  highlighted on issues pertaining the LC1s, most especially their welfare at work place, the Deputy RDC interjected, saying some of the LC1’s have become so corrupt to the extent, any case before them in the village court, they side with the other party which has money.

Mr Ezama said, that is partly caused by the poor funding of LC1s, where he said, they are paid 10,000 Shs per month for services they render in their various villages across the Country.

Ms Atukunda Lillian, one of the Lawyers attached to judicial service commission decried the poor payment of LC1s, adding that, it is actually one of the causes they discovered is making the Police to suffer in handling cases because some of those corrupt LCs are biased against the other party that doesn’t offer them something.

Mr Ham advised Judicial Service Commission to take over the initiative of sensitizing the LC1s by translating some of the relevant laws from English to their local languages and distribute them to the LC1s for them to quickly interpret the law, an advise the Judicial Service Commission gleefully accepted.

The deputy RDC, while  concluding his speech, brought to the attention of the commission, the issue of over remanding suspects without proper case hearings and so on.

He said, their mandates as the “Executive” doesn’t allow them to interfere with any court proceedings at any level but asks the JSC to write this in their reports so that something can be done about it by the leadership of Judiciary.

The Arua District LC5 Chairman Hon Alfred Okuonzi requested Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to also keep on negotiating for new Court structures to be given for the district, stressing that, many times it becomes so hard for people in the villages to go and attend their court proceedings or that of their relatives before the courts.

Hon Okuonzi said, they (District Leaders) are also using other available avenues to lobby for allocation of court structures for Arua District to address the challenges he aforementioned, adding that, transportation of suspects from the villages and Sub-county police stations to Court Hall which is in Arua City, can at times aid the suspects to escape along the way.

The LC5 Chairman also talked about the rising cases of Mob Justice, most especially against Thieves and other cartel of criminals, a statement he said must have be a retaliation strategy by the community members to wipe out thieves and other criminals in their amidst.

Hon Alfred Okuonzi said, when communities volunteer to arrest thieves in their amidst and police or courts later release to go free, it angers the communities members.

They feel justice is not being done to them because some of the thieves, after reaching in the communities, they begin bragging, saying, “You people thought you were big to arrest me and i would not come out, but here i am”, Hon Alfred articulated as the Members in the meeting burst into laughter.

Rising land conflicts in Arua District is another cancer the LC V Chairman raised to JSC, equivocating that, ignorance for the law is one of the factors which triggers that.

Hon Okuonzi winded up his speech by tasking JSC to do something urgently to avert the issues of “Personal Conflicts of Interests” in sms court proceedings where freedom and rights of some  suspects end up being violated becomes of bribery related scandals that frustrate the wheels of Justice for such suspects, quoting that, “Justice Delayed is Justice Denied”.

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