Africa-Press – Uganda. At least 13 judicial officers, including five judges, are set to hang their judicial wigs this calendar year after clocking retirement age, Daily Monitor has learnt.
According to the official judiciary records, the five judges include Ezekiel Muhanguzi of Supreme Court, Ruhinda Asaph Ntengye (the Chief Judge of Industrial Court), Jane Kiggundu (Resident High Court, Mbarara), Joseph Murangira (Family Division of the High Court), and Vincent Okwanga Tonny (International Crimes Division of the High Court).
The other judicial officers include two deputy registrars, one chief magistrate, one Grade One Magistrate and four Grade Two magistrates.
According to the Constitution, Supreme Court and Court of Appeal justices retire upon clocking 70 years.
Elsewhere, the judges of the High Court retire upon clocking 65 years. Then those at the lower bench—like registrars and magistrates—retire at 60 years.
Judiciary records show that Justice Muhanguzi will be retiring on February 16. His retirement at the Supreme—the highest appeal court in the land—will leave them with eight justices, including Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny- Dollo.
Justice Kiggundu retired on January 3 while Justice Murangira will call time on his judicial career on May 20. Justice Okwanga is set to retire on June 22 while Chief Judge Ruhinda of the Industrial Court will be hanging his judicial wig on February 22.
The departure of four justices at High Court level will leave 55 judges on the bench. The approved structure is, however, 82. This means there will be a staffing deficit of 27 judges.
The Constitution grants a retired judge a three-month extension just to clear any pending work like writing and delivering pending judgments/rulings. During this period, the said judge is not supposed to take on any new cases.
Speaking to Daily Monitor last evening, the Chief Registrar, Ms Sarah Langa Siu, said: “We thank the retiring judicial officers for their contribution in the administration of justice and service to this country over the years. May God help each one of them complete the remaining period well.”
When asked whether the Judiciary has notified the Judicial Service Commission to replace the retiring judicial officers, Ms Langa said: “We have already sent the notification to the Judicial Service Commission and we usually do this six months in advance to every retiring judicial officer.”
In a related development, all judges of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and the High Court including registrars in the same courts, will be converging for the week-long annual judges conference in Kampala, starting today, to assess their performance of the previous two years and also come up with solutions of improvement in the new calendar year.
This means that there will not be any court hearings in the aforementioned courts for the whole week. The lower magistrates’ courts will however, work.
Biography of retiring judges
Justice Ezekiel Muhanguzi
He rose to the limelight five years ago when he led a panel of three justices to hear the high profile case involving Muslim clerics who were facing terrorism charges between 2016 and 2017. He later convicted them of verbal terrorism but the clerics appealed his decision before being acquitted of the same. When he clocked 65 years, he retired as a High Court judge but President Museveni reappointed and elevated him to become a justice of the Court of Appeal and he was later promoted to the Supreme Court. He started his legal career in 1977 as a State Attorney and left in 1980 for private practice only to return to public office in 2005.
Ruhinda Asaph Ntengye
He has been a career judicial officer, having risen through the ranks from the lower Bench to the High Court. Prior to his appointment as Chief Judge (head of Industrial Court), he was the Acting Chief Registrar of Courts of Judicature. He became the head of the Industrial Court, after it had been revived to hear labour related disputes. Justice Ntengye was born in February 1957.
The father of five children began his education at Kinoni Primary School and then joined St Leo’s College in Fort Portal, Kabarole District, where he sat for O-Level in 1977, and Caltec Academy for A-Level.
He then joined Makerere University for a Bachelor of Laws before joining the Law Development Centre (LDC) in 1986.
He holds a certificate in Case Management from Reno University in Nevada, USA, in 1996, a diploma in managerial problems in courts from Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, in 2001 and a certificate in Management Strategies from Ripa International, London in 2001.
Mr Ntengye taught at Uganda College of Commerce, Nakawa, from 1986 to 1987.
In 1988, he was appointed a Grade One Magistrate and posted to Mbarara Court where he spent a year. Mr Ntengye was later promoted to the position of Chief Magistrate and served at Bushenyi, Kabale, Fort Portal and then Buganda Road courts before being elevated to the position of Deputy Registrar of Courts of Judicature in 1999.
Jane Kiggundu
She was appointed as a High Court judge in May 2008. During her tenure, she was transferred to various duty stations including Masaka, Family and International Crimes Divisions and Mbarara which was her last station.
During her time as judge, Justice Kiggundu served as the Executive Director of the Judicial Training Institute. Prior to her appointment as a judge, she was the acting Solicitor General and Administrator General.
Joseph Murangira
Justice Murangira has been a career judicial officer, having risen from the lower Bench to becoming a High Court in the 2000s. During the course of his judicial work, he was accused of corruption by city lawyer Frank Kanduho. However, the Judicial Service Commission dismissed the case for lack of merit after the complainant failed to produce any single witness, three years later.
Justice Murangira served at court stations including Mubende, High Court, Criminal and Family Division, with the latter being his last duty station prior to his retirement. He has also handled several high profile cases, including the famous sodomy case against prominent city pastors, murder case involving city businessman Andrew Kananura, aka Desh, and a land matter involving city businessman Hassan Basajjabalaba.
Vincent Okwanga Tonny
Little is known of Justice Okwanga, but he has been a High Court judge for some time including stations such as Gulu and the Criminal Division and the International Crimes Division, which has been his last station. In 2019, he was involved in an accident as he drove with his bodyguard to his country home in Otwal, Oyam District.
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