02/06/2026
COURT REGISTRY: THE FORGOTTEN PART IN SOUTH SUDAN QUEST FOR ACCESS TO JUSTICE.
Photo: Uganda's Court of Appeal
By Adv. Lugala Kenyi
The common phrase goes "don't re-invent the wheel" meaning why waste time when the solution lies within?
Today, I am super excited to see the footprint of our good work and contribution to the Registry of the Uganda Court of Appeal both Civil and Criminal Divison located at Twed Towers Nakasero.
In 2019, while still a final year law student in the last semester Law School, IJM reached out to about 50+ of us (all Law Students) who had undertaken to study the Course Unit of Clinical Legal Education 2. The said Course Unit had the mandatory requirement of undertaking a project with an impact on the Community and especially on Access to Justice.
The 100M+Ugx "Registry-Re-Org Project" was funded and jointly implemented by the Judiciary of Uganda (beneficiary) and IJM (partner), under the direct Supervision of the then Deputy ChiefJustice now retired Chief Justice emeritus (JSC Owiny Dollo).
The Project aimed at cleaning a completely dusty and abandoned heap of archived completed case files, aged and rotten active case files and a re-current problem of persistent missing case files (*****on level or actively running) all leading to delays in case adjudications and completion and so the saying "Justice Delayed is Justice denied." Ofcourse, they say, every court litigation must have an end and that finality is the success in ex*****on. Otherwise, it is useless to have a judgement which one can't execute.
But also, importantly, the Uganda Judiciary under its then leaderhsip had embraced the era of digital transformation and was now migrating to that space starting with the Appeal Registry as a pilot. I understand today, most courts are almost digitized.
While, Uganda indeed being our good neighbor and model continues to transform its Judiciary under the overall objective of enhancing the access to Justice for its citizens by remedying the mischief in its Court registry and today, is able to show and retrieve case files dated back to the 1990's with ease, South Sudan current State of the Judiciary Registry comes to my mind and focus. I just can't imagine, tracing and retriving an archived court file recorded back in the 2000's or in the aftermath of Independence, if the one of last year is already proving difficult to locate in the active court shelves.
A few days ago, I appeared for a mention of a Land case registered in 2025 in Gudele High Court only for the case file to be searched invain making way for a unwarranted adjournment to a later date until when the file was to be found. I am quite sure, many litigants and court users have already experienced or faced this problem time and again!
A mere vist to any County Court Registry up to the Supreme Court, Police Stations Registries, Private Advocates Chambers, Prosecutors Chambers and the Ministry of Justice Bussiness registry reveals the shocking magnitude of the poor filing system and the reason to worry in accessing justice in our beloved Republic.
Notably, the case filing in the Court's registry is done manually despite the interventions of the digital technological era, the case files covers are now aged and rotten, files sit on the floor, no proper shelves for archiving and ease of locating active cases in shelves. The occurence of any fire incident in the registry shuts the entire door and chance of any access to justice.
The Court clerks or registrars take hours and days especially when no small SSP bribe is tossed to them, which all combined with other factors contribute significantly in limiting access to justice and continued lack of trust in our Judicial system.
Indeed why, waste time and look for solutions when they are already there? Can't the registries afford digitization in the era of modern computing? Can't the Registries afford homemade metalic shelves and filing boxes? Can't the registries afford safe and secured online storage or strong rooms to guard against fire incidents? Is the court fees collected from mortgage registration fees and Court case filing fees not enough to deliver the registry re-org project?
Therefore, the Judiciary of South Sudan (JOSS) is strongly Appealed to spare some few millions pounds collected from the Litigants and re-organize the Court registries. Buy strong metalic shelves, migrate data to computers ensuring dual physical and cloud storage.
Similar appeal seeks the urgent intervention from other Justice Law and Order Sector actors comprised of the Bar Association (SSBA), Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs (MoJCA) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Development Partners-UNDP, UNMISS and MAX PLANC Foundation to support in the digital transformation of the registry system.
The views expressed here are a personal opinion and the writter can be reached via on Email @gmail.com
