Museveni picks Owiny-Dollo as chief justice, Butera as deputy

President Yoweri Museveni has nominated Justice Alfonse Owiny Dollo new Chief Justice, and Richard Butera his deputy.

Owiny-Dollo will replace Bart Katureebe who retired in June after he clocked the retirement age of 70.

Owiny-Dollo was hitherto acting chief justice following Katureebe’s exit.

He was deputy chief justice under Katureebe’s reign.

He has made history as the first deputy chief justice to be promoted to the top most job in the judicial arm of goverment.

His predecessors had all been picked from the Supreme Court.

Owiny-Dollo will be Uganda’s 13th chief justice since independence.

As head of the judiciary, he will be the country’s number four after the president, vice president and speaker of parliament.

As deputy chief justice, he will be remembered for chairing a panel of Constitutional Court judges that upheld the removal, in 2017, of the presidential age limit.

As a judge, Owiny-Dollo had also tried suspects of the 2010 Kampala terrorist bombings.

Also appointed was Butera who will be deputy chief justice.

Owiny-Dollo and Butera now await vetting by the parliamentary appointment committee.

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