When the minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Kahinda Otafiire, visited the Law Development Centre (LDC) in 2011, he was concerned about the increasing class sizes of lawyers.
He was told then that LDC admits about 600 students who sometimes study in one hall. He equated the arrangement to a 'public rally' and advised management to decentralise LDC by setting up regional centres.
Yudaya Nangonzi met with DIDAS BAKUNZI MUFASHA, the LDC's head of department of Law Reporting, Research and Law Reform, to find out if the minister's call to expand had been heeded.
What is the latest in your expansion plan?
LDC was set up in 1970 with a target of about 70 students per intake. By that time, it was only Makerere University churning out law graduates. Over time, many universities have come on board and produce law graduates in big numbers, which [is why] LDC is unable to handle all the lawyers.
So, we found it necessary to decentralise LDC because our products are on demand by people all over the country. We have decided to move closer to the people to provide legal aid and as well as accommodate the increasing numbers.
Where exactly are the centres going to be located?
Right now, a committee headed by me has been set up by the director LDC, Frank Nigel Othembi, to establish where the centres are going be set up. But all the same, we intend to come up with centres in the Northern, Eastern and Western regions of Uganda.
Now, as to which district will be chosen to host LDC is a matter that this committee is going to investigate. In the north, we shall visit Gulu, Lira, Kitgum, and Arua districts to find out which one of them is most suitable for an LDC centre. For the east, we shall go to Jinja, Mbale, Soroti, Kumi and Moroto districts.
Western region districts are Rukungiri, Mbarara, Kabale, Kisoro, Kabarole, and Hoima district in the south-western part of the country. We shall later come up with a recommendation report to the director and management committee on the most suitable districts.
But is there demand for law programmes in these regions?
Yes! The number of universities offering law is increasing and each of the regions has at least a university. Some of the students may prefer to come and study from Kampala and will be accommodated here.
But those who will stay in their regions will make use of these regional centres. And we are very optimistic that we shall have students enrolling in our centres, since they will strictly be open for only the bar course and other short courses.
When do you expect to start visiting the various regions?
We have started with carrying out research and in a few days, we shall be going out to the regions to make further inquiries.
How much is required to set up these centres?
That is part of our work to determine while in the field. For instance, we want to know the estimated prices of buying land in those regions and later come up with a budget.
Where do you expect to get funds to run these centres efficiently?
All these centres will entirely be funded by the government of Uganda. We have got backing from the ministry of Justice, Law and Order Sector and the president himself has allowed us to go ahead with this project, after we explained to him how important it was to decentralise our operations.
Will this see new staff joining the centres or do you intend to retain the ones based at LDC?
That is another thing that we are going to discover. But, we know that we can get staff in some other areas in order to buttress what we have at LDC. All professional advisors [lecturers] at LDC will always exchange firms with those in regional centres in order to keep up at the same pace.
There will be recruitment of more staff to create jobs for Ugandans though we don’t know the numbers as of now.
Currently, LDC can comfortably admit 1,000 students for the bar course despite having thousands sitting for pre-entry exams. What is the maximum the centres will admit?
The idea behind this project is to decentralise and decongest LDC. At times, you realise we have 600 bar course students and another 600 for a diploma in law and about 500 doing short courses. That is a huge number of students in a facility like ours.
So, once the regional centres are complete, some lawyers will stay at the main centre and others will be sent to the regional centres. The teaching will be the same, sit similar exams and the quality of our graduates will be the same.
When it comes to pre-entry, we shall discuss with the law council on whether the students will continue to write their exam in Kampala, or completely sit the exam from regional centres.
So, LDC space is limited?
No! The intake at LDC is not limited by space but, rather, the passing of pre-entry. All the numbers that pass come to LDC and are comfortably accommodated. There is a time when we needed more students but fewer passed.
What is the anticipated time to start construction and when you are expecting your first set of students?
Our target is to have the centres operational in the academic year 2018/19. We are carrying out a feasibility study, which will be completed by the end of this year. But I’m sure we shall be ready by that time and we shall achieve it.
We might not have buildings but it will not stop us from starting. We can rent some buildings while construction for our permanent premises continues because we want all firms [classes] not to exceed 10 students. When LDC started, there were about five to six students in every firm but today, about 30 students study in one firm. The findings of the committee will also determine whether we shall have all the centres start at ago or one at a time.
Who is driving all these changes?
The LDC director together with the chairperson of the management committee, Justice Stella Arach-Amoko, also a Supreme court judge, have introduced a lot of innovations at LDC that will attract more lawyers.
Everyone should help us to implement this project. Those holding the country’s purse should help us by availing the required finances, and politicians should give us the political will because the project is meant for the good of the country.
nangonzi@observer.ug