Madaallii Raawwii Hojii (MRH) Abbootii Seeraa Oromiyaa: Barbaachisummaa Fi Sirna Raawwii Isaa

Both Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and Oromia National Regional State Constitutions clearly stipulate that except under exceptional situations, judges at all levels shall not be removed from their duties before they reach retirement age. One of these exceptions is gross incompetence or inefficiency of judges. To say a judge is grossly incompetent or inefficient, there must be a system known as judges’ performance appraisal system through which an assessment is made. Generally speaking, there is no universally accepted performance appraisal system. However, a system which is wholestic and exhaustive in its standards, sources of information and methodologies in general (commonly termed as 360-degree performance appraisal system) is highly preferred. This is also true in case of judicial performance appraisal. Coming to Oromian context, currently, there is no scientific system to appraise the performance of judges. As a result, it is hard for Judicial Administration Council to make decisions on judicial affairs like promotion of judges, and existence of gross inefficiency. This in turn, negatively affects not only independence but also accountability of judges. Hence, it is timely to implement 360-degree performance appraisal system in Oromian courts so as to evaluate performance of judges.