Members of Parliament on the Legal Committee have rebuked the Judiciary for the reckless handling of bail applications.

Some lawmakers, led by Abdu Katuntu  the Bugweri County MP and Medard Ssegoona Busiro East MP on April 3,2025, were wondering whether some Judicial Officers actions are characterised by injustices like adjourning on a bail application.

This was during a meeting held with officials from Judiciary who had come to present their 2025/26 Ministerial Policy Statement.

“There is this simple thing called bail. And somebody adjourns a case for two weeks to grant bail. This is not professional. It’s not legal. It’s not common sense. And some of you, we call you lordships. Why are you Justices when you cannot dispense justice,” Katuntu said.

Katuntu accused judicial Officers of corruption and monetarising bail application, wondering if there aren’t other mechanisms that can be used to enforce the appearance of suspects in courts.

According to Katuntu, money has been the factor of the bail application but why shouldn’t the judiciary think of other things.

Katuntu proposed the enactment of an independent law on bail applications, saying the judiciary should start thinking about going away from the guidelines and make a substantive legislation.

Medard Ssegoona, in turn  asked if the Judiciary has a system that periodically reviews the decisions of these judicial officers who offered to be among those to review these decisions and why they  charges a lot of money.

Ssegoona warned the Judiciary that Ugandans might be prompted to emulate their Kenyan counterparts who set Kenya’s Parliament on fire, and also set court buildings ablaze due to the declining public trust in the judicial systems.

Pius Bigirimana, Secretary to Judiciary apologized on behalf of the Judiciary stating, “I want to take this opportunity to apologize on behalf of the judiciary for some of the shortcomings that have been experienced. And some of them are systemic, others are for individuals in the judiciary.

“We do apologize. But we are not just seated, we are looking at all those areas that have got weaknesses and see how to fix them, both in the human resource and in the systems, ”Bigirimana stated.

Bigirimana however defended the monetization of bail saying it is currently the only available means.

These criticisms reflect broader challenges within the judicial system, including concerns over judicial independence and the rule of law. In some cases, judges are reportedly hesitant to grant bail due to political pressures or fear of repercussions.