The Judiciary will engage the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) about options of having the City Hall Court relocated to better premises, the Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Judiciary, Mr Pius Bigirimana has said.
“While this Court’s structure may be better than many other courts out there in terms of organizations, it is quite small and the stench from it’s Holding Cells is quite unbearable,” Mr Bigirimana said on Monday, during his maiden inspection to the Court. He was taken around bythe Magistrate in-Charge of the station, Mr. Valerian Tuhimbise.
Mr Bigirimana said that you, while it may be Judiciary’s responsibility to have a permanent courthouse for the City Court, the City Hall Court remains a very strategic organ for KCCA, given their nature of operations. “We shall talk to KCCA and ask them to find better structures for this court,” Mr. Bigirimana
“In the meantime, please try and clean-up this place so that it doesn’t not produce this strong smell. Let’s not subject these people brought(accused persons) to such smell. I have seen younger people in there and majority of them may even be innocent.”
Mr Bigirimana inspected the City Court with a team of senior administration staff, including Ms. Maureen Kasande (Under Secretary), Dr. Christopher Ebal (Commissioner Engineering), Ms. Apophia N. Tumwine (Ag. Commissioner HR), Mr. Simon Peter Opolot ( Principal Economist), Mr. Solomon Muyita (Principal Communications Officer), and Ms. Idah Kemigisa (Senior Assistant Secretary).
The Magistrate, Mr. Tuhimbise, said the City Hall Court is unfortunately located between two busy public toilets and the officials share one small entrance with the accused persons.
“Our small Court holding cell is equally shared by the accused persons on remand and the suspects that KCCA keeps rounding up from the streets. This is quite irregular, for the cells are used for both police and the KCCA law enforcement team and the Prisons.
“The only solution to the mess around here is to have this court immediately moved to a better structure elsewhere. In any case, KCCA is one of the litigants in this Court, and that makes it tricky for us to have them hosting us,” he said.
Mr. Bigirimana said that such tours enable him appreciate the issues on the ground and plan better for the institution.
His next stop in the coming weeks will be the Magistrates Courts of Kasangati, Goma, Kira and Nabweru.
