Judiciary criticizes ‘impatient’ Masaka lawyers for ‘unnecessary’ protest

The deputy chief justice, Dr Flavian Zeija, has criticised the Masaka lawyers guild for being “impatient” and engaging in what he called an unnecessary and premature strike.

On Thursday last week, lawyers practising under the Masaka High court circuit declared an industrial action, protesting the severe shortage of judges, which they say has led to chronic delays in the delivery of justice.

Through their chairperson, Alexander Lule, the association announced that they would not return to court until the Judiciary deploys at least two more judges and an additional High court registrar to enable the expeditious hearing of cases. Lule argued that despite the court’s vast jurisdiction covering nine districts, Masaka High court has only one judge, a situation that severely limits its capacity to handle even a quarter of the workload.

However, Zeija, the immediate former principal judge, has dismissed the strike as uncalled for, insisting that the lawyers should have sought dialogue before taking such drastic action.

He said as the Judiciary there have received no formal communication from the organisers of the industrial action because if there was, they would have learned that a second justice, Victoria Nakintu Nkwanga, who was already posted to Masaka, has been away on study leave and is scheduled to return next month to take up her assignment.

“Now that is a problem of lawyers not coordinating with the administration. For example, before you go on a strike, I would have first expected them to write formally a complaint either to the chief justice or to the principal judge, but there is no such communication. I only see in the press that they have gone on strike. My view I think that is a very wrong approach,” said Zeija.

Salimat Mutale, one of the female lawyers practising in the Masaka sub-region, defended the strike, arguing that the challenges in the justice system have persisted for too long. She accused the Judiciary of ignoring continuous public outcries, noting that litigants are frustrated by unending adjournments and a backlog of unresolved cases.

Mutale cited a backlog of 415 family-related cases at the Masaka High court that have overstayed in the system due to the absence of judges, warning that this is worsening the domestic violence situation in the area.

She also expressed concern that the shortage of judicial officers threatens the success of the Justice4Her Program, an initiative by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) aimed at improving access to justice for GBV survivors, particularly women and girls.

Roland Muwezi, a lawyer with Basasha and Company Advocates, added that the strike is not about the lawyers’ interests but reflects the wider suffering of the public, who are denied timely justice.

“When you look at this Masaka circuit, initially in the 2000s, I think there used to be about six law firms. The workload was much, but those six law firms would be served by one judge who would be there. There’s a time when work would be too much and they would send relief judges to go and handle civil sessions for 30 days. But now there are over 50 law firms,” said Muwezi.

“Then, there are lawyers who come from Greater Masaka, there are some who come from Kampala and Mbarara, they come to litigate here. So we’re actually also talking on behalf of those ones. So the workload has increased, you cannot remain in the status quo that you were in 2001. Since 2025, the population has grown, conflicts are increasing,” he added.