In mid-June, this year State Prosecutors had warned that they would go on a sit-down strike if the government did not enhance their salaries and improve their terms of work. “We wrote a proposal to the Ministry of Justice, to the Sub-Committee of the Parliament that our pay should be raised such that the State Prosecutor can start at 15 million, a State Attorney at 16, a Senior State Attorney at 17 up to 40 million for the Director of Public Prosecutions.” Now after the ultimatum they gave the government to meet their demands or at least commit in writing to do so, Expiry with no word from the government, the State Prosecutors came good on their threat. “How do you expect people to dress smartly when you are not paying them to dress in good clothes that reflect not only their profession but also reflect the image of the government.” They kept away from the Courts and when NTV visited Courts in and around Kampala and various districts, there was no much activity. “So yesterday the ultimatum which was given by the General Assembly expired, meaning that automatically the strike was triggered.” “The place is as quiet as a desert the way you can see.”

Prison authorities told NTV that they did their part and brought in the inmates as required in Court but they turned away pending an amicable solution between the government and Prosecutors. “So, since the Court did not commit itself to tell us that we shouldn’t take the inmates, for us we took the inmates normally.”
The Judiciary Spokesperson said only criminal cases were affected. “So, the effect is that we will not be handling criminal trials for the time being because they are the people who prosecute, lead the testimonies and lead everything in-regards to criminal trials.” According to Prison authorities, 90% of the prisoners were on remand over criminal cases. “Because we take an average of 1,200 inmates to Court. Out of them, about 100 are the ones who are on civil cases, the remaining about 96% of the inmates are criminal offenders.”

Relatives of prisoners who had sought bail for their loved ones were stranded at various Courts. “...he has a family, children, the wife is sick, the children are not going to school. He is the father, he is the mother, everything so we are confused we don’t know what to do.” “Recently the report that came out put a number of the total case backlog both civil and criminal to about 37,000 cases in our system.” “Does it make sense to keep taking prisoners to Court and there’s no attendance from Court and they get back to prison because justice delayed is justice denied.” Besides the huge case backlog and congestion in the prisons, authorities said they were likely to fill up to capacity if State Prosecutors’ strike continued. “Because right now we have 56,000 inmates 724 which is far away from our capacity of about 20,000. Now there is something we are investigating; one, there’s discontentment that is going to be generated, I only don’t wish it to reach the levels of a riot. But two, there are very many held up cases the other side. big inflow of inmates generates a crisis, generates a crisis in resources, generates a crisis on funding.” “It is not only affecting the Court, but also the people who come to Court to seek justice, which justice should not be delayed. So that is one problem but for this week, we shall continue to have our civil matters.” “The laying down of their tools is a necessary evil, which we hope will be used as a stepping stone to stamp out corruption from the Judiciary because if their complaint is that the pay is penult which indeed it is.” “The Judiciary Spokesperson Vicent Bukawo proposes other remedies in case the strike continues and the issues are not resolved.” “You can access the Court through your relatives, they can make an application for unconditional release and indeed there are those that have been released on orders of the Court if they have not been charged within the prescribed time. The Police can release some of these people on Police bond if they deserve.” about 11 am and Nakawa Magistrate’s Court one of the busiest Courts and always full was empty. all the Courtrooms were abandoned because State Prosecutors were on strike. This had a lot of implications in the dispensation of justice and it was a wake-up call for the government.