President Museveni To Meet State Prosecutors Next Week

Posted by: Kyeyune Andrew Jonathan in Uganda news April 23, 2022

On Tuesday 26 April, which will be next week, President Museveni will meet prosecutors from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

There will also be a memorial lecture for the former Principal State Attorney Joan Kagezi in the same meeting. The office of the director of public prosecutions organized this meeting.

This meeting has been announced at a time when Prosecutors under their umbrella Uganda Association of Prosecutors (UAP) are raising some issues.

These include concern about their security and safety, poor remuneration, poor working conditions. This is in addition to lack of adequate facilitation in the execution of their duties.

They say the government has ignored these key issues that facilitate the wellness of their operations. They also complain that their counterparts in the judiciary are well renumerated.

Additionally, they alleged that judicial officers across all ranks received a boost in their salary in the last financial year. The lowest judicial officer, a Grade one Magistrate earns Shs5.6m.

They revealed that a state attorney with the same qualifications and experience gets only shs2m. The government still even taxes this same money.

They also said that unlike them, they don’t tax salaries of judicial officers and other stakeholders in the justice law and order sector.

During the new law year, President Museveni revealed his awareness of the issues affecting prosecutors. He asserted that the cabinet had made a decision to look at the welfare of prosecutors. This is because they do the risky jobs.

The president later wrote to the ministry of finance and Public Service directing them to work on the issues. To the surprise of the prosecutors, the proposed budget only catered for recruitment and left out salary increments and welfare.

Kukundakwe Arthurton the Deputy Secretary-General of the Uganda Association of Prosecutors revealed that Poor remuneration has demoralized prosecutors.

“There is surely no need for such a huge salary disparity where you have the same qualifications, and experience and face the same work environment and same risks! Even court clerks, interpreters, and transcribers earn more allowances than a state Attorney who is a fully trained government lawyer,” he said.

Apparently, in 2017, prosecutors under their umbrella association, the Uganda Association of prosecutors went on strike for two months which paralyzed court business.

After that, the government through a letter addressed the issues that took the them on strike.

According to Kukundakwe though, the prosecutors are hopeful that the President will address the issues that remain largely unmet.

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