Judges of the Supreme and High courts are attending a three-day training on sentencing principles as part of plans to formulate judicial sentencing manual. The training was organised by Supreme Court in collaboration with the Commonwealth Secretariat. According to the Spokesperson of the Judiciary, Charles Kaliwabo, the main aim of the workshop is to equip participants with the knowledge and skills to apply sentencing principles in their work. “Rwandan judges will learn from the experience of experienced judges from UK and Uganda to fairly exercise their judicial discretion in sentencing so that there will be harmonised sentencing for same offences; for Rwandan citizens to receive fair justice, appreciate it and have trust in the judicial system as a custodian of justice,” Kaliwabo said. More so, he said, the biggest gap in the judicial system is that there are no sentencing guidelines. However, he said there is still hope that it would be formulated following the training. While opening the workshop, Chief Justice Sam Rugege said it was important because sentencing is such a crucial aspect of the administration of criminal justice that no lawyer and more particularly no judge should be without. Grasp of sentencingAccording to Rugege, there is need for a thorough grasp of sentencing principles and understanding of how to go about determining the appropriate sentence in practice. “In our case, we do not have books or guidelines on sentencing, yet we have to pass sentences all the time in criminal matters. The result is that there is frequently wide disparity in sentencing on similar offences whether in the same court or in different courts of equivalent jurisdiction,” said Rugege. To facilitate the training, the Judiciary outsourced lead trainers such as Dame Linda Dobbs, a retired high court judge from the UK who has been teaching judicial matters, and Justice Lawrence Gidudu, a high court judge from Uganda and head of the Ugandan Judicial Education Secretariat.
