Civil society roots for Anti-Corruption Court

Civil society organizations have urged government to improve facilitation to the Anti-Corruption Court, if its effectiveness is to be improved.
The organizations which include the Anti-Corruption Coalition, the Uganda Debt Network and ACCODE sounded the call as they began marking the Anti-Corruption week today.
The organizations appreciate the role played by the court which has so far prosecuted 49 cases to completion and recovered 4.5 billion shillings, with a backlog of 164 cases.
Speaking on behalf of the organizations, the communications officer of the Anti-Corruption Coalition Felix Kafuma said the court remains poorly facilitated despite the major responsibility it carries.
He says the court is not well funded to conduct sittings in different parts of the country, explaining the back log of cases.
The organizations also note that staffing levels for the courts are too low, with just 2 judges and 3 magistrates.
They are asking government to increase the number of judicial staff for the court to at least 10.
Statistics from the World Bank indicate that Uganda loses about 500 billion shillings to corruption.

Story by Hadijah Mwanje

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