KAMPALA – A city lawyer, Mr Jackson Ntwatwa has petitioned the High Court Civil Division seeking orders to quash the six-member taskforce recently set up by the Chief Justice Bart Katureebe to investigate alleged corruption in the Judiciary for purportedly being incompetent.
The six member task force that was appointed on August 8, 2019, is headed by Ms Immaculate Busingye, the inspector of courts.
The members of the taskforce include; Mr Vincent Mugabo Public Relations Officer, Ms Susan Abinyo Registrar Magistrates Affairs, Mr Godfrey Kawesa president UJOA, Mr Ayebare Tumwebaze Assistant registrar in CR’s office and Mr Solomon Muyita Senior Communications Officer.
Mr Ntwatwa claims that the taskforce appointed is a wastage of resources since they do not have any legal mandate to investigate corruption cases or complaints with some not being ‘clean’.
He says that there are several well established committees and commissions in the Judiciary for example the disciplinary committee, inspectorate of courts, the Judicial Service Commission with capacity to investigate the said alleged corruption allegations.
According to Mr Ntwatwa all the members of the newly created taskforce are at the level of a registrar, they will not be able to summon judges of the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in case they are accused of corruption, hence wastage of resources.
Mr Ntwatwa now wants court to declare that the six-member taskforce that was set up to fight corruption in the Judiciary be declared incompetent, a wastage of funds and of no consequence.
He also wants court to declare Chief justice’s appointed taskforce as an interferance with the constitutional mandate of the Inspector General of Government (IGG), Judicial Service Commission and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations of the police.
The taskforce intends to commence its investigations with immediate effect and is expected to hand over its report findings to the Chief Justice by September 30, 2019.
