From the Abyss. . .

. . .of silence.

Been far too long since I published anything, but with the holidays and everything else happening, this did not happen. But here I am, safe and sound, in Kampala. An interesting development has happened in the new year that is worth sharing:

**I am now the only full time mediator in the Commercial Court.**

My colleague and formidable (in ability, not presence) ally in the Commercial Court, Registrar of Mediation Henry Hadouli, has been transferred to become a level 1 Magistrate in the eastern region of Uganda. What is a level 1 Magistrate? Why was he transferred, leaving only one mediator? What are you going to do? All good questions. No good answers at this time. There is another mediator in the court working part time, but she is looking for other employment and planning to be gone by end of January. They have replaced Henry with another Registrar, that I hear is supposed to mediate, but to my understanding does not have any experience mediating and will have to go and get trained before starting to practice. So, it's go time. I am a bit nervous about being the only one here full time, but by this time if I am not ready to go then I never will be. In short, I am ready to go. I certainly hope they can get someone up to speed and in place before I leave in August. The Commercial Court is already down to only three judges and they need mediation to help stem the tide of cases and reduce the back log.

Another aspect of mediation is that our statistics came out and they are dismal, as reported. There is a 5% success rate on mediation in the Commercial Court, according to the annual report. The biggest problem with this number is that it got published to the judiciary. We know for a fact it is not correct, but the problem is the record keeping on mediations has not been very good, so there is no way to know how much higher the real statistics are. Justice Kiryabwire is hot on the topic now and is all for making whatever changes need to be made now, especially as we are in a transition time. Including allowing us/me to start sanctioning lawyers for not showing up (hallelujah) and working to streamline the process. Justice K (our affectionate--and more easily-pronounceable--name for him) is meeting with the other Commercial Court judges on Friday to discuss the next steps.

Sounds like a new and busy day in terms of mediation. There is more to follow. I had an article published in the New Vision yesterday that I will post for you all as well. In fact, I want to do a little experiment with it, but more on that in a little bit.

Hope you all are well and living in peace. More soon. . .