Kampala City Council Authority (KCCA) councillors are demanding the judiciary to relocate the City Hall court to another area.
In a special meeting convened by the Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago on Wednesday 34 city councillors unanimously agreed that KCCA executive director Jennifer Musisi should write to the Chief Justice Bart Katureebe requesting him to relocate the court that city dwellers refer to as torturing premises.
Speaker after speaker during the council meeting narrated how they witnessed the brutality and injustice conducted at the City Hall Court. They accused some KCCA enforcement officers of conniving with the court officials to extort money from poor dwellers.
“Those without money are sentenced to Luzira Prison ” Ismail Damba, Rubaga Division councilor, told the council while weeping.
Council passed a resolution, giving the judiciary one year to relocate the court from the City Hall. For the last six years, a section of the public has accused some KCCA enforcement officers of abusing the City Hall court.
The officers are accused of, among others, dumping people and their property at the court as well as stealing people’s property and extorting money from the public.
In the recent past, Lukwago helped a group of vendors to escape, arguing that he was tired of watching poor people being tortured near his office.
In April this year, during the Buganda Road Chief Magistrate’s Court Open day, Lukwago faulted the court’s location on the KCCA premises, saying that there are several activities being done at the court which violate human rights.
But Chief Justice Katureebe defended the court’s location, saying KCCA technical wing wants the court there to handle specialized enforcement by-laws.
