Hon. Justice Katureebe (CJ), during the stakeholders meeting discussing Land Eviction Guidelines
KAMPALA: The Chief Justice, Hon. Justice Bart M. Katureebe, has cautioned landowners and tenants against politicizing land evictions as it is making the task of delivering justice harder.
The Chief Justice made these remarks while officiating at the opening of a Consultative Meeting for Draft Guidelines on Land Evictions held at the Imperial Royale Hotel on July 31, 2019.
The proposed guidelines come amidst rising illegal eviction of people from land in the country.
In his speech, the Chief Justice said on several occasions aggrieved members of the public, unhappy with certain court rulings have come out to attack judicial officers who made those rulings, even before appealing against them.
The Chief justice cautioned complainants against going political before exhausting the available legal procedures.
He further tasked the Ministry of Lands and Urban Planning to come up with stringent laws because the Practice Directions alone will not address the root cause of the problem.
In a speech read by the Permanent Secretary,Ministry of Lands and Urban Planning, the Minister of Lands and Urban Planning,Hon Betty Amongi, commended the guidelines saying, "this will give Government and other stakeholders a leeway to provide strategic interventions following a string of controversial land evictions that have affected thousands of people with total disregard for their rights as individuals who were in occupancy; and a failure to heed to international standards during and after land evictions."
She added that the Government has the responsibility of protecting all people from eviction by providing lawful protection and redress.
In the proposed Guidelines, evictions will only be carried out during working days and not beyond 6pm.
Proper names of people being evicted must be provided to avoid evicting wrong people, tenants must be given time to takeaway their belongings before evictions are carried out.
The other recommendations included limiting the role of police to simply observing evictions in addition to keeping law and order during lawful evictions.
Court bailiffs, who attended the workshop at Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala on Wednesday, July 31, 2019, proposed that bailiffs should only inform the Division Police Commander.
Currently,the Inspector General of Police, Director Kampala Metropolitan Police and Regional Police Commander have to be informed about planned land evictions sanctioned by court.
"We find a lot of challenge from Resident District Commissioners and other security officials. They put a lot of feeling in the warrants. When they look at the amount involved, they ask how much is there for them," Ms Sarah Komugisha said.
She said all court bailiffs in Kampala use the same RDCs to conduct evictions and in case of theft, they are referred to police.
Under the new proposed guidelines, court bailiffs are supposed to provide details of the people they work with during evictions.
It was proposed that bailiffs provide storage to property of the evicted persons or incase they attach movable items.
The meeting rejected a proposal to evict people during the dry season as per the UN standards to protect property from damage.
The Chief Justice, Hon. Justice Bart Katureebe urged judicial officers to stick to the rules and regulations while issuing eviction orders.
He pledged to defend their actions even if they are reported to the President.
"Where a Judicial Officer has done their work, we as leaders will not shy away from defending you. Let’s do our work properly and transparently," he said vowing to defend judicial officers even if the matter they are handling becomes political.
The proposals came up while Judges, Chief Magistrates and lawyers and other stakeholders deliberated on the proposed guidelines to follow during evictions.
Posted 1st, August 2019
