PROFILE: Who is Deputy Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo?

By our reporter

Alfonse Owiny Dollo is the current Deputy Chief Justice of Uganda, a position he assumed on 30 September, 2017.

He replaced Steven Kavuma, who attained the mandatory retirement age of 70 years, on 29 September, 2017.

Apparently Justice Owiny Dollo is heading a five-judge bench that will decide on whether parliament’s decision to amend the constitution which led to the removal of the presidential age limit should be reversed or upheld.

Who is Owiny Dollo?

He was born on 18 January 1956 in present-day Agago District.

He holds a Bachelor of Laws from Makerere University, and a Diploma in Legal Practice, from the Law Development Centre in Kampala.

His Master of Arts in conflict resolution, was obtained from the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom. He also has a certificate in advanced conflict mediation skills, obtained from the Center for Conflict Resolution, in Cape Town, South Africa.

In 1988, Owiny-Dollo served as legal counsel in the peace talks between the then rebel outfit, Uganda People’s Democratic Movement (UPDM), and the government of Uganda. In that capacity, he wrote the peace agreement executed between the government and UPDM, on 3 June 1988, at Pece Stadium, in Gulu.

From 1994 until 1996, he was a member of the Constituent Assembly that drafted the 1995 Uganda Constitution. He also served as a member of parliament, representing Agago County in the 6th Parliament (1996–2001).

In 1996, he was appointment as minister of state in charge of Northern Uganda Reconstruction Programme (NURP).

In 2006, two years before he was appointed as a judge, Owiny-Dollo was a member of President Museveni’s defence team when his election was challenged by Dr Kizza Besigye in the Supreme Court.

In 2008, he was appointed to the High Court of Uganda, serving in that capacity until 2015.

In 2015, Owiny-Dollo, was promoted to the Court of Appeal of Uganda. However, he couldn’t immediately take up his appointment because he was hearing a terrorism case in the High Court, in which 13 men were accused of killing 76 people in twin bombings in Kampala in 2010. He disposed of that case in May 2016.

In August 2017, the president of Uganda, appointed Owiny-Dollo, as the Deputy Chief Justice and under Ugandan law, the head of Uganda’s Court of Appeal and Uganda’s Constitutional Court.