The judiciary on Wednesday June 14, 2023 launched small claims procedure at Tororo Municipal court amidst praises from the RDC’s office and local leaders.
The event was presided over by Tororo Deputy RDC, Albert Amula and attended by Chief registrar in charge of Small claims Procedure, Mastulah Mulondo, all judiciary staff members in the district and the LCV chairman, John Okea.
In his keynote address, Amula said the small claims procedure would help in unlocking funds held up in commercial disputes in the district which was affecting economic growth.
He reiterated the commitment of the office of RDC Tororo to support in the sensitization of communities about small claims procedure and tasked the local leadership to become ambassadors of the program in their respective areas of jurisdiction.
Amula informed the stakeholders that many of the people in Tororo are coerced into misleading agreements while borrowing money and end up losing properties.
“I am therefore optimistic that the small claims procedure will address the gaps. I urge the community of Tororo to embrace it,” said Amula.
On her part, Her Worship Mulondo thanked the people of Tororo for embracing the small claims procedure at the Chief Magistrates Court and Mulanda Magistrates court.
She however noted that the uptake of small claims was low and attributed it to inaccessibility between the chief magistrates court and lower local governments due to the long distance.
Mulondo said the small claims procedure is intended to speed up on delivery of justice because the judiciary was receiving a lot of complaints about justice being delayed.
“Therefore owing to that factor the judiciary found it prudent to launch the small claims procedure at respective Magistrate courts in the district [of Tororo] and so far 40M shillings has been recovered from commercial disputes brought before the small claims procedure court,” she said.
The district chairperson, John Okea appealed the Judiciary to extend the small claims procedure to all courts operating in Tororo so as to reduce on criminality in civil matters.
