The Permanent Secretary to the Judiciary, Dr. Pius Bigirimana, has revealed that cases worth over Ugx 77 trillion are trapped in the commercial court, saying that if the cases were timely funded by the Ministry of Finance, Uganda would not need to borrow from the World Bank.

According to Dr. Bigirimana, if adequate and timely funding were provided to adjudicate the pending cases, Uganda would not even borrow to finance its national budget.

“The cases trapped in the commercial court are in construction, banking insolvency positions, and loans of intellectual property,” Dr. Bigirimana revealed.

Dr. Bigirimana made the statements on April 27, 2024, while appearing before the Legal Parliamentary Committee to discuss the judiciary and the case backlog.

He faulted the finance ministry for failing to fund the cases in time, saying that you cannot reduce the case backlog without investing in them.

The PS noted that as of December 2023, the judiciary had a list of case categories totaling over Ugx 83 trillion, but currently it stands at around Ugx 77 trillion.

“As a result of the judges who were put in the commercial court, it helped reduce the backlog of cases a bit; we need money to recruit High Court judges and promote alternative dispute resolution mechanisms,” Dr. Bigirimana said.

He further noted that the new Supreme Court and Court of Appeal buildings that were under construction are ready and await the official commissioning by President Museveni on April 12, 2024.