Uganda’s Youth Minister Dr. Lakisa Calls For Urgent Operationalisation Of The Remand Homes Court System To Expedite Juvenile Justice Across The Country
The 5th Annual Governance and Security Programme (GSP) Review (FY 2025/26) has taken place at the Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala with the State Minister for Youth and Children Affairs, Dr. Mercy Faith Lakisa, calling for the urgent operationalization of the Remand Homes Court system to expedite juvenile justice in Uganda.
Dr. Lakisa, who is also the woman Member of Parliament for Alebtong district, said that government had gazetted all the seven Remand Homes to also serve as courts to dispense juvenile justice but regretted to note that none has been operationalized.
The State Minister said that the delay to make the Remand Homes Court system functional has led to delayed trial of cases for children who are in conflict with the law .
“ Justice delayed is justice denied . We must do something to have these gazette children courts operational to reduce case backlog and congestion in the few remand homes we have ,” Lakisa stated .
All the seven remand homes are overcrowded with limited space to accommodate children who get in contact with the law . There are 1,032 children in remand homes and yet the recommended capacity is 780.
Kampiringisa National Rehabilitation Ceneter one of the few children remand homes in Uganda
Dr. Lakisa was addressing a well attended GSP Review that highlighted the milestones registered and gaps yet to be filled across the 32 Governance and Security Porgamme agencies .
The 2025/26 annual performance report under the 2nd Governance and Security Programme Strategic Plan implementing the 4th National Development Plan (NSPIV) shows the performance against the results targets .
The Mission of the GSP is to ensure adherence to the rule of law, human rights, democracy, accountability and promote peace and security in Uganda.
The minister called for more funding to rehabilitated all remand homes and make them habitable for children offenders . Lakisa said government was constructing a new remand home in Moroto to serve the Karamoja region .
Commenting about the challenge of street children , Dr. Lakisa said government was investigating to establish the key drivers for street children and come up with practical solutions to deal with the problem –including family tracing .
According to the Annual Review Report findings presented by Mr. Sam Rogers Wairagala, the Deputy Senior Technical Advisor at the Governance and Security Programme Secretariat , audit recommendations implementation, stood at 59%, falling short of expectations. He urged government institutions to act on outstanding audits rather than leaving them unresolved
Wairagala further reported that gender and equity compliance reached 61% against a target of 70% and the refugee resilience performance lagged at 39% against a target of 53%, heavily constrained by declining international financing.
The report revealed that the Inspectorate of Government (IGG) recovered Ug.Shs. 41.9 billionin the on-going anti graft campaign.
The report further shows that there has been marked improvement in capacity building for various duty bearers (security and law enforcement agencies to prevent and respond to crime, and 32,617 offenders were rehabilitated, exceeding the target of 6,000 inmates.
According to the report 20% of villages (out of 71,227) engaged in community policing programmes while various JLOS institutions continued automating their systems.
