Some of the lawyers before they were enroled at the High Court on Aug 3, 2011.

The East African Court of Justice (EACJ) has urged the member States to utilise it to settle arbitration matters instead of sending them to Europe and elsewhere.

Members of the Court and East African legislators complained that the member States are frustrating the Court by not referring matters to it yet they created it and had judges trained to handle the regional matters.

They said that the court does not charge the parties in the disputes because its judges are paid by the East African Community, yet parties from the member states go abroad where arbitrators charge the parties per hour.

They also want the protocol to extend the Court’s jurisdiction to handle human rights cases operationalized. They complained that the member states are moving too slowly on this.

The frustration of the East African Court of Justice was vented yesterday at the opening of a two-day workshop held in Kampala to highlight the role of the Court in the regional integration process.

The Court Registrar, Dr. John E. Ruhangisa said that the region needs all the three fully functioning arms of government for the political federation to take place effectively. He said that the Executive, legislative and Judiciary arms of the EAC should be working well for the federation to succeed but the EACJ currently has limited jurisdiction.

Ruhangisa also said that even when member States are brought to the Court, the Attorneys General of these States are quick to file preliminary objections telling it that it does not have jurisdiction to handle the complaint.

He said that Uganda is one of the member States that have delayed the protocol for extension of the Court’s jurisdiction because it delayed to send its comment.

But he also praised Uganda as the only country in the EAC that has attempted to include a clause in an agreement with Rift Valley Railways that they parties would submit to the EA Court in case a dispute arises. According to him, it does not have to be State parties to refer disputes for arbitration, but individuals and other legal entities also can.

He said that the court will open sub-registries in each of the member States to save people from having to travel to Arusha to place a case. The registry in Kampala will be hosted at the Supreme Court and will be fully operational by January next year.

However, Ruhangisa said; of all the Community member States, Uganda and Kenya seem to be utilizing the Court most while the others are reluctant… “We are seeing the EACJ becoming a Uganda-Kenya affair because they provide the bulk of cases the Court has.

The Justice Harold R. Nsekela, Judge President of EACJ said that national courts seem to be enjoying uniform jurisdiction with the EACJ which he said is undermining it because cases which it alone should handle are handled by municipal courts. He cited matters like those concerning customs union and the common market.

“These seem to oust the Court. Are the leaders uncomfortable with the Court? This is not conducive to the integration agenda because it undermines the court and regional uniform jurisprudence,” he said.

He added that if the court were fully operational there would be many disputes.

He also cautioned the member states to stop rushing overseas for arbitration where when things go wrong they start complaining that those people “do not understand our peculiar circumstances.”

Uganda’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African Affairs, Eriya Kategaya who opened the workshop said that the court is underutilized because its stakeholders do not know much about it. He said that some of the parties that EAC member States get disputes with insist on international jurisdictions.

“We need to convince the outside forces that the five of us can produce a credible and competent court that can deliver justice,” Kategaya said.

He also urged the participants to discuss the issue of the Court’s jurisdiction as far as human rights matters are concerned. “You need to discuss this issue though the court seems to have found its way in dealing with the article on human rights in the treaty.

“As the protocol gets finalised, the partner State must also be prepared to cede some powers of their national courts’ jurisdiction to the regional court. It is inevitable therefore that the State will have to examine their national laws regarding operations of courts and align them with the EACJ when the protocol is finalised,” Kategaya said.

The members also asked the member States to make the Court’s judges to work there on full time basis instead of the current arrangement where they work on adhoc basis. They said that working on adhoc basis will create a case backlog.

They said that the about 20 cases are pending before the court while 12 have been handled. They said that the pending ases could take about three years if the judges keep working on adhoc basis.

By Anne Mugisa, The New Vision

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