Judicial Immunity and Corruption in Uganda’s Judiciary: A Critical Examination

Submitted: 20 August 2025
Accepted: 27 November 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.70139/rolacc.2025.2.3

Rukundo Godfrey
Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies, Policy and Governance Department, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda
2024phd041@std.must.ac.ug
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-8890-7452

ABSTRACT
Judicial immunity, enshrined in Article 128 sub-article 4 of Uganda’s 1995 Constitution, is intended to protect judicial independence, but critics argue it can create opportunities for impunity and corruption. This study critically examines the relationship between judicial immunity and corruption in Uganda’s judiciary by combining doctrinal legal analysis with secondary empirical evidence from court decisions, institutional reports, and public perception surveys. Guided by Principal-Agent Theory, the paper asks whether and how immunity undermines accountability and public trust. Key findings show that, while immunity remains essential to protect impartial adjudication, gaps in enforcement, limited transparency in disciplinary processes, and systemic inefficiencies have at times allowed misconduct to persist and weakened public confidence in the courts. Reforms such as the Anti-Corruption Division and the Electronic Court Case Management Information System (ECCMIS) have improved processes but have not eliminated corruption because of resource constraints and political interference. The article concludes that preserving judicial independence requires strengthening complementary accountability mechanisms: transparent, time-bound disciplinary procedures; continuous judicial ethics training; guaranteed institutional and financial autonomy; clearer statutory limits on immunity; and improved inter-agency coordination. Implementing these reforms would better align immunity with accountability and restore public trust in Uganda’s judiciary.

Keywords
Judicial immunity; corruption; accountability; judiciary; Uganda

© 2025 Godfrey, licensee LU Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cite this article as: Godfrey R. Judicial Immunity and Corruption in Uganda’s Judiciary: A Critical Examination, Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Center Journal, 2025:2, https://doi.org/10.70139/rolacc.2025.2.3

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