Supreme Court anti-corruption week kicks off

All corruption related cases will be produced in court this week, the Chief Justice, Sam Rugege announced yesterday. He disclosed this during a press conference organised by the Supreme Court at its Kimihurura premises. Currently, there are 66 corruption cases registered in courts.The move to have all cases cleared is part of the Supreme Court’s annual campaign to fight corruption. The campaign, which kicked off yesterday, is scheduled to end on Friday. During a similar event last year, 43 out of 83 corruption cases were cleared.Last year’s campaign also saw eight judicial employees, including six judges, suspended on corruption-related cases.Between 2009 and 2011, 14 people were also arrested for trying to bribe judges.“Fighting corruption is everyone’s responsibility. The media has the responsibility to sensitise the public to report all those who solicit bribes. Having a corruption-free judicial system is in everyone’s interest and that’s why fighting against it needs everyone on board,” Rugege noted.Among other activities scheduled in the course of the week are video conferences with the public on the status of corruption in the justice sector ,and sensitisation among judicial workers.Rugege also noted that the Supreme Court and the High Court are still faced with challenges of scarcity of judges resulting in backlogs. Currently, the Supreme Court has only 12 Judges and the High Court 26. This is in the face of over 2,800 and over 6,000 cases, respectively, that they need to rule.“We are in the process of amending the law so that some of the cases are referred to lower courts to clear the backlog,” explained Rugege.The Chief Justice also announced that they are in the process of bestowing ‘Abunzi’ (local arbitrators), with more powers to try more cases.

National

Supreme Court anti-corruption week kicks off