President Museveni has appointed Dr Flavian Zeija as the new Principal Judge replacing Justice Yorokamu Bamwine who is retiring.
Justice Zeija has been serving as the Mbarara Senior Resident Judge.
Justice Zeija was first appointed judge of the High Court in 2016.
Justice Bamwine will leave judicial service on December 25 upon clocking the retirement age of 65.
Daily Monitor reports that Museveni also appointed the Director of Public Prosecutions Mike Chibita and two others as justices of the Supreme Court.
The other two are; Ezekiel Muhanguzi and Percy Night Tuhaise who have been justices of the Court of Appeal.
The names have been forwarded to the Speaker, Rebecca Kadaga, for parliamentary vetting next week.
The Senior Presidential Press Secretary, Don Wanyama, told Monitor the swearing-in of the new judges is tentatively scheduled for December 10.
Profiles:
Justice Dr Flavian Zeija
He was appointed justice of the High Court in 2016 and has served as Resident Judge in Masaka and Mbarara districts.
Prior to joining the High Court, he was the head of department of Business Law at the Faculty of Commerce, Makerere University Business School (MUBS), a position he assumed in 2007.
Between 2004 and 2012, he served as a member of MUBS Council and taught on the Masters of Law programme at Uganda Christian University from 2014 to 2016.
Justice Zeija enrolled as an advocate in 1998 and formed Zeija Mukasa and Company Advocates in 2003.
He also served as company secretary and legal counsel for FINCA Uganda.
Justice Tuhaise
Justice Percy Night Tuhaise was elevated to the Court of Appeal in 2018.
Prior to that, she was the head of the Family Division of the High Court and also a member of the Governing Council of Judicial Training Institute.
She was on the panel of the International Crimes Division in the case of Uganda versus Siraje Kawooya & 13 others, which involved various Muslim clerics who were accused of assassinating rival Muslim leaders.
She participated in translation of the 1995 Constitution into Runyoro/Rutooro under supervision of the LDC.
Previously, Justice Tuhaise served as deputy director at LDC, vice chairperson of Electricity Disputes Tribunal, Commissioner at Uganda Law Reform Commission, National Coordinator of Women & Law in East Africa Uganda Chapter.
Justice Ezekiel Muhanguzi
He headed the panel in the Muslim Clerics trial. At the time of his retirement from the High Court he was the Deputy Head of the International Crimes Division, a position he had held since 2014.
He has been judge in the Court of Appeal/Constitutional Court.
Prior to that, he had served for four years as Resident Judge at Mbale High Court.
He started his legal career in 1977 as a State Attorney and left in 1980 for private practice only to return to public office in 2005.
Since 2013, Justice Muhanguzi has been serving as the President of Bible Society of Uganda.
He is the Chancellor of African Rural University, a position he has held since 2010.
Justice Mike Chibita
He is a judge of the High Court but was appointed Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on October 14, 2013.
At the time of his appointment, he was the Deputy Head of the Land Division at the High Court.
Prior to that he served at Masaka and Fort Portal High Court as Resident Judge from 2010-2011 and 2011-2013 respectively.
He worked as a State Attorney in the Attorney General’s Chambers Uganda (1994) and Personal/Legal Assistant to the Attorney General (1995-6).
Between 1996 and 2003, he served as a Private Secretary /Legal Affairs to President Museveni.
He returned to the Attorney General’s Chambers as a Principal State Attorney, a position he held from 2003 to 2005.
He worked at Uganda Revenue Authority as an Executive Assistant in the Commissioner General’s Office (2005-2010).
Credit: Daily Monitor
