THE PATH THE WRETCHED OF THE EARTH TREAD TO GET JUSTICE IN UGANDA’S COURTS OF LAW
By Mutabazi Sam Stewart
Two years ago, Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI), a local human rights watchdog visited Luzira and other government prisons to acquaint themselves with the conditions of incarceration centres in the country and to gauge the performance of Uganda prisons standards vis-à-vis the Standard Minimum Rules (SMR) for the treatment of prisoners (United Nations Treaties and guidelines). The revelations were stunning in as much as there had been improvements recorded over time. One of the most shocking revelations was that some prisoners had spent over three years on remand having never been produced in any court of law.
According to the findings 61% of 19,000 prisoners held in all government prisons countrywide were on remand in 2005. Over 90% of all prisoners have no knowledge on legal procedures while 67% of prisoners receive no legal advice throughout their trial. 70% of offenders are illiterate and are not aware of bail provisions. A large number of inmates cannot afford to pay bail funds which are in most cases exorbitant and thus are forced to return to prison as they await trial, which often comes at a snails pace.
Mind boggling as this may be the practice seems to be normal according to prison officials given the fact that the current scenario presents an improved picture of what was happening in the past where some prisoners were spending more than five years without trial. They said the delivery of justice and the conditions of prison facilities are continually improving.
Readers must note that the official gazetted maximum time for one to be presented to a competent court after arrest is 48 hours while the mandatory remand period is 360 days for capital offences and 120 days for petty offences. One can however ague that 48 hours is too short a time for the resource constrained justice system in Uganda to adhere to. But how can one justify a system that would stretch such a mandatory and constitutional provision to an obnoxious three years? I don’t know how many hours are in three years but they must be in millions. As if that is not enough, almost half of the people who are normally kept on remand for more than a year end up being released at their first appearance in court either due to lack of sufficient evidence or because they are found not guilty.
Because of staying long in prison which in most cases leads to poverty of the accused and members of their immediate families, coupled with ignorance of the law, hardly anyone has ever sued government for wrongful incarceration and denial of freedom of movement while they were in prison. The culprits normally celebrate their new found joy having lived in a prison environment for a very long time. The cycle of law enforcement agencies arresting and sending innocent people to prison keeps rotating because nobody challenges the status quo.
I don’t know how other people feel but there is nothing I abhor like injustice. I hate injustice with all my might, mind and energy. It makes me sick. Being accused falsely and staying in prison without being convicted nor sentenced is the second highest price one can pay, the highest being death itself. It is the worst form of injustice.
Now, parallel to this treatment offered to the poor and the wretched of the earth, there is a kind of justice that is given to the affluent and the mighty. They know the Law and have better connections to those in power. I am talking about people like those who were involved in the misappropriation of the now famous Global and GAVI funds. Despite the fact that there is incontrovertible evidence that money was stolen, the accused persons were arrested, brought before courts of law with in the prescribed mandatory period and charged. After a day or two they applied for bail which was granted without any hustle. The next are trivialities that will keep the public expecting the courts pronouncements on whether the accused are guilty or other wise, a judgement that is likely to take longer than the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Despite an assurance by the courts that the trial of the accused would be done expeditiously, so far there have been more than four adjournments with very flimsy excuses offered by both the courts and lawyers of the accused. This is termed as delaying tactics to weaken the case. The longer the case takes to adjudicate, the harder it becomes to present credible evidence to convict the accused. Lest I am accused of subjudice, (biasing courts of Law) I leave the reader to complete my thought about the ongoing trial of GAVI and global funds
Cases carefully investigated by police lead to expeditious trials. Expeditious trials are cost effective on the part of government and the accused. They make justice meaningful and not a mockery. They are assuring to the complainant, the accused and the public at large. To the poor and illiterate people on remand in prisons, justice delayed is justice denied. But to the rich, famous and well connected individuals, justice delayed is sweet delayed victory that awaits public outcry and anger to subside. It is a predetermined “not guilty verdict” that is known both to the accused and the court but waiting to be delivered at a distant date. It is a ridicule of justice in the real sense of international law and adjudication of judicial matters that negates the fundamental principal of “every one is equal before the Law”. It seems Raymond Chandler was right after all when he said “The law isn't justice. It's a very imperfect mechanism. If you press exactly the right buttons and are also lucky, justice may show up in the answer. A mechanism is all the law was ever intended to be.”
The writer is a Human Rights Activist
Contact mutasamste@yahoo.com
Tel: 0772-882547
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