By Mulengera Reporters
War has erupted in Supreme Court with Justice Faith Mwondha writing a long missive accusing CJ Bart Katureebe of concurring with other judges to chew Shs500m disguised as honoraria for the extra time they claim to have put into the age limit appeal.
Mwondha says it was inconsiderate for the judges to each get extra payment for the case yet they already earn a salary to hear such appeals.
She is also angry that whereas only 7 judges heard the appeal, the honoraria was budgeted to be paid to all the 11 Justices of the Supreme Court including those who weren’t part of the panel.
One of these was Justice Augustine Nshimye who earned over Shs15m as payment for the paper he wrote about parliamentary practice. Mwodha says herself too had been put on the budget to earn Shs15.9m yet she wasn’t part of the team to hear the age limit appeal.
A report in Daily Monitor shows that later on, Supreme Court registrar Godfrey Opifeni wrote a memo recalling the Shs15.9m initially allocated for Mwondha claiming it had come to his attention she was away in Singapore. The other was Justice Easter Kisakye who was also removed from the list by Opifeni on grounds she was ill and unable to play any supportive role to the 7 colleagues hearing the appeal.
Mwondha, who accuses CJ Katutebe of personally hating her, says the Opifeni memo was unnecessary and aimed at humiliating her because she hadn’t showed any interest in the Shs15.9m allocated to the other judges.
She says she is senior enough but for his own reasons Katurebe didn’t include her on the panel and the alleged Singapore trip was used as an excuse to sideline her from the very lucrative case of age limit.
The former IGG says since joining Supreme Court, Katurebe has always found reason to sideline her, a thing she says has turned her into a mere spectator. The Chief Justice says he doesn’t regret the more than Shs500 that went into facilitating judges to deliver the age limit judgment because such expenditure is common practice everywhere.
He says it would be unfair calling the Shs500m wasteful expenditure because the age limit was a unique case that saw judges and their staff put in extra time.
He also denies hating Mwondha and wonders why its only her who is ranting yet a total of 4 Supreme Court judges were excluded from the age limit appeal.
He says there is no way everyone would sit on the panel of the age limit appeal. Judiciary PS Kagole Kivumbi says the Shs500m Mwondha is ranting about is very little money for the so many judges and their support staff to share compared to what lawyers earn in private practice.
Besides Katurebe, the other judges in the age limit case were Rubby Opio Aweri, Jotham Tumwesigye, Stella Arach Amoko, Prof Lillian Ekirikubinza, Paul Mugamba and Eldad Mwangusya.
Mwondha says she is senior enough to have been included but she wasn’t because CJ Katurebe is always uncomfortable with her. The CJ says its his discretion to determine who sits on the panel for which case and can’t apologize to Mwondha and those who think like her. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755).
