KAMPALA, UGANDA: The Judiciary has launched an exercise to have all people who were released on cash bail and later had their cases concluded, return to pick their bail money.
This followed complaints from some stakeholders alleging delays in the bail money refund process, while others confirmed said they were unaware of how to recover this money.
According to Sarah Langa Siu the Chief Registrar, by 30th June 2021, the Judiciary account had Shs 26,440,252,650 unclaimed bail money.
“The general public should know that the accused person is entitled to his/her money as soon as the case is concluded; whether it has been decided in his favour or not. However, he must have not absconded from court at any time of hearing of the case,” she said.
Ms Langa said the judiciary is now embarking on sensitizing the public about procedures to be followed to recover such funds. She said, some of the key elements of regaining this money is ensuring that one has a receipt.
“The Judiciary will not refund any form of cash payment made without a receipt by anybody at the premises of court.” Langa said.
The process of getting the refund starts with applying in writing to the Court that granted the bail, with full name of the applicant, address and phone contact, Bank account details all under the names of the applicant.
The application has to be accompanied by the original bail/bond form received from Court, the original general receipt that was issued by Court and the original URA acknowledgment receipt (where applicable).
After this, Court where the application is made will extract the Court order for the bail refund. The same shall be signed, sealed by the judicial Officer and attached to the application.
The Cashier of the Court shall then prepare a requisition for the refund with the aforementioned documents addressed to the Permanent Secretary/Secretary to the Judiciary.
This requisition is signed and submitted by the Head of the Station, and later the payment will be made with 7 working days.
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