A whistleblower has petitioned the Chief Registrar of the High Court to launch an urgent judicial audit into what he describes as widespread procedural irregularities and alleged judicial misconduct at the Chief Magistrates’ Court of Mengo.
The petition, which names Earth Rich Company Limited and its legal representatives as central players in a series of questionable civil suits, raises grave concerns about the integrity of ongoing court processes and the abuse of judicial authority.
Submitted by Matovu Joshua, who identifies himself as one of several affected debtors, the detailed letter outlines what he describes as a systematic manipulation of the court system to favour Earth Rich Company Limited in debt recovery matters.
While he has disclosed his identity in the petition, Matovu notes that he initially withheld it due to fear of retaliation, and asserts that his claims are supported by verifiable evidence.
According to the whistleblower, a syndicate involving court officials, private lawyers, and process servers has enabled Earth Rich Company Limited to gain unjust court orders through falsified service of summons, forged signatures, and secret ex parte proceedings.
He accuses the company of exploiting Uganda’s Electronic Court Case Management Information System (ECMIS) to file lawsuits without alerting defendants and using forged affidavits of service to deceive magistrates into proceeding without the debtor’s knowledge.
Among the most serious allegations are claims of collusion between certain magistrates and a legal team representing Earth Rich Company Limited.
Matovu alleges that once a case is wrongfully allowed to proceed ex parte, debtors are then ambushed and arrested based on warrants they had no opportunity to contest.
In one account, he claims debtors are surveilled for months before being arrested and committed to prison in what he calls “a coordinated judicial ambush.”
The petition lists over twenty case files involving different magistrates, each alleged to have presided over matters in which similar irregularities occurred.
The whistleblower cites manipulated service of court documents, forged taxation hearing notices, and fabricated court records—all allegedly used to commit defendants to prison or pressure them into immediate, often unjustified payments.
He further claims that once arrested, defendants face inhumane prison conditions and are subjected to coercion: either raise large sums of money under pressure or endure months of imprisonment.
The psychological and financial toll, he says, leaves many too incapacitated to pursue legal redress, especially given the prohibitive costs of appealing to higher courts.
The letter calls for the immediate transfer of all magistrates who have presided over these contested cases to districts outside the Kampala metropolitan area.
Matovu also demands the temporary suspension of implicated judicial officers pending an inquiry and the appointment of independent magistrates to review and preside over cases previously handled by those named in the petition.
He warns that failure to act risks setting a dangerous precedent where legal systems are manipulated by actors with influence, money, and access to judicial insiders.
“These issues represent a grave miscarriage of justice that has denied citizens their right to a fair hearing,” Matovu wrote in his concluding remarks. “If left unchecked, this misconduct will continue to erode public trust in the judiciary, emboldening corrupt actors to weaponize legal processes for personal financial gain.”
Matovu’s call for a comprehensive judicial audit comes amid growing national concern about transparency and accountability in Uganda’s court system.
While the Judiciary has made efforts to digitize its processes and improve service delivery through platforms such as ECMIS, the petition highlights the potential for abuse of these very systems when internal checks are weak or compromised.
By press time, the Judiciary had not issued a formal response to the petition.
