Richard Buteera, also Richard Butera, is a Ugandan lawyer and judge who has served as a member of the

Supreme Court of Uganda The Supreme Court of Uganda is the highest judicial organ in Uganda. It derives its powers from Article 130 of the 1995 Constitution. It is primarily an appellate court with original jurisdiction in only one type of case: a presidential electi ...

since September 2017. Immediately prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court, he served as a Justice of the Uganda Court of Appeal.

Background and education

Buteera was born in Uganda. After attending local primary and secondary schools, he was admitted to

Makerere University Makerere University (; Mak) is Uganda's largest and oldest institution of higher learning, first established as a technical school in 1922, and the oldest currently active university in East Africa. It became an independent national university in ...

, Uganda's oldest and largest

public university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whether a national university is considered public varies from o ...

. He graduated from Makerere with a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

degree. He followed that with a postgraduate

Diploma in Legal Practice A diploma is a document awarded by an educational institution (such as a college or university) testifying the recipient has graduated by successfully completing their courses of studies. Historically, it has also referred to a charter or offi ...

, awarded by the

Law Development Centre The Law Development Centre (LDC) is an educational institution in Uganda for higher learning that offers various legal courses ranging from one month to one year. Overview The LDC is the only institution in Uganda that offers the Bar Course lead ...

, in Kampala. He was then admitted to the Uganda Bar.

Career

During the early 2010s, he served as the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), in the Uganda Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, prior to his appointment to the Court of Appeal. While there, he advised the then Inspector General of the

Uganda Police Force The Uganda Police Force is the national police force of Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democ ...

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

Kale Kayihura, that as of April 2013, there was no law in Uganda against drink-walking. “Whereas it is undesirable for people to walk while drunk, but they are not breaking any traffic laws and it is improper for police to arrest them,” Buteera is quoted to have said. He also pioneered a program to reduce the backlog of cases of suspects on remand in Uganda's prisons, where, as of April 2010, there were 33,000 prisoners in the system that was built to house 13,700 inmates. Of these, 45 percent were

convicts A convict is "a person found Guilt (law), guilty of a crime and Sentence (law), sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a commo ...

and 55 percent were suspects on

remand Remand may refer to: * Remand (court procedure), when an appellate court sends a case back to the trial court or lower appellate court * Pre-trial detention, detention of a suspect prior to a trial, conviction, or sentencing See also

*''Reman ...

. The program was intended to reduce the remand prisoners in the system. As a Supreme Court Justice, in January 2020, at a Judicial Officers Conference, he advised the officers to take special care of complainants who are elderly, disabled or with other special needs, including pregnant women and children. In July 2020, the

President of Uganda The president of the Republic of Uganda is the head of state and the head of government of Uganda. The President (government title), president leads the Executive (government), executive branch of the government of Uganda and is the commander- ...

, named Justice Buteera to be a member of the Judicial Service Commission, a constitutional body mandated to recruit judges and regulate their conduct. He was sworn in on 24 July 2020.

References

External links

Official Website of Judicial Service Commission

External links

Lawyer accuses Museveni of bribing voters
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buteera, Richard Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Ugandan judges Makerere University alumni Law Development Centre alumni Justices of the Supreme Court of Uganda