The East Africa First Instance Division court has dismissed the ‘walk to work’ case filed by the East African Law Society (EALS) brought against Uganda in respect to government’s reaction to the post-election protests in 2011.

Court said that the Applicant did not produce evidence to show which people were killed or their death certificates and the people injured or their medical reports.

The Deputy Principal Judge Isaac Lenoala, while delivering the Judgment said that the Applicant’s case was ‘weak’ and could not sustain the allegations as to whether Uganda committed the acts in violation of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community (EAC) or Laws of Uganda under its Constitution.

Court further said that among the evidence produced by the Applicants through Affidavits were for James Aggrey Mwamu, who brought electronic evidence and he said that he was not there, he doesn’t know what happened and therefore his evidence was not authentic and reliable.

The other three: Samuel Muguya, Francis Mwijukye and Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda were also on the spot, with court saying that Ssemuju Nganda brought a photocopies of a newspaper Article indicating that Dr Besigye Kiiza was arrested and others said that they participated in the walk to work protest and that people were killed, while others were injured and teargassed.

The case was filed by the East African Law Society  against the Republic of Uganda & the Secretary General of the East African Community 2nd Respondent) over the alleged violent disruption of peaceful demonstrations in Uganda on April 11, 2011, as being in contravention of human rights and therefore violating the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community in particular Articles 3, 4, 6(a), 7(2), 9, 10 and 11.

Court however said that: “We will not let Uganda go thinking all was okay” Justice Lenaola read. He added that, had the Court found sufficient evidence that these events occurred, and the Applicant brought credible, authentic and reliable evidence, court would have found the Government of Uganda to have violated the Treaty.

The Judgment was read by Hon Justice Isaac Lenaola, Deputy Principal Judge and Counsels present in Court to receive the Judgment were Phillip Mwaka (Principal State Attorney), Charity Nabaasa (Senior State Attorney) and Goretti Arinaitwe (State Attorney) all representing the AG Uganda, and Mr William Arnest for the Applicant (EALS) with Michel Ndayikengurukiye (Principal Legal Officer EAC).

Court ordered each party to bare its own costs because EALS filed the case in the wider interest of the Rule of Law of the Community.

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President Yoweri Museveni has assured crime preventers in the country that they will maintain their duties as they are now regarded as a Reserve Army of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF).

“A few weeks ago, I saw in the papers and somebody said that the fate of the crime preventers is to be decided by the new Inspector General of Police. I called the IGP and told him that this is not your problem,” he said as he received cheers from the gathering.

The President made the remarks while addressing a delegation of over 3,000 crime preventers’ co-ordinators from all regions of Uganda at Lugogo Indoor Stadium in Kampala.

President Museveni disclosed that the strategy of the programme was not that of the former IGP, Gen. Kale Kayihura, but that of the National Resistance Army (NRA) during the people’s protracted liberation struggle. He added that Gen. Kale Kayihura’s role was to diligently implement the programme  and highly commended the former IGP for overseeing the programme to its fruition.

“It was not a Kale Kayihura programme. Kale Kayihura was a loyal cadre who actively implemented it. Therefore, I want to salute Gen. Kale Kayihura for actively implementing the programme. I now regard you as a Reserve Army of the UPDF,” he said.

President Museveni further explained that during the bush days, NRA had layers of organisation that included, among others, militias who would guard villages. He, therefore, urged the administration of crime preventers to establish and consolidate village coordinators in order to effectively combat crime as crime is rampant in villages and perpetrators can easily be identified.

Mr. Museveni encouraged crime preventers to also be exemplary actors in poverty eradication in their areas to the level of becoming role model farmers. He advised the leadership of the Uganda Police to work jointly with Operation Wealth Creation to identify crime preventers per parish to be aided.

“Crime preventers should lead in the revolution of being crime preventers and wealth creators. You should work with OWC to single out those who can become model farmers so that they do not only get out of poverty but also become examples,” he counselled.

President Museveni informed the assembly of crime preventers the sectors of wealth creation that they should sensitize the youth about in their areas. The sectors include modern commercial agriculture with calculation, industry, services and Information Communication Technology (ICT) for Business Process Out-Sourcing.

The President expressed gratitude to learn that crime preventers have formed and decentralized their SACCOs, which he pledged to support come next financial year of 2018/2019.

The Minister for Security, Gen. Elly Tumwine, advised crime preventers to be disciplined and organised so as to effectively combat crime and corruption in the country, and added that the NRM revolution was founded and built along the same lines. He noted that a new generation has now emerged to continue with the struggle and will certainly deal with the vices of crime and corruption.

“The future belongs to the organised. Crime and corruption are like darkness; once torched, they will disappear and the two vices are in danger in Uganda,” he stressed.

The National Chairperson of Crime Preventers, Mr. Blaise Kamugisha, encouraged coordinators to continue with the noble cause of helping the Police to fight crime in order to make the country safe to live in.

The Deputy Inspector General of Police, Brigadier Muzeyi Sabiiti, among others, attended the meeting.

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The Chief Justice, His Lordship, Bart Katureebe has said judges in Uganda need special training to help them do their work better.
“We need that training at induction, being a good scholar or lawyer does not necessarily mean that you will make a good judge,” he said
He added that government has built capacity of judicial officials. “We have strengthened the training of judicial officers. I don’t need to over emphasise the need of training,” he said.
He made the remarks Wednesday during the launch of Judiciary Scorecard at the Kampala Serena Hotel.
He continued that: “Once you’re confirmed as a judge, you need to transition naturally. We take part of the blame and now we welcome training of judges.”
“You might be a good lawyer but the moment you are transformed into a judge, you need to learn how to be a good judge which at times actually fails to work,” he said.
He said the judiciary has strengthened fighting against corruption. “Some people however speculate that they have lost a number of cases because judges were bribed. Sometimes, you criticise the judges for nothing,” he said, adding that they have set up hotlines to help the public report any judges involved in corruption activities.
Even with the limited resources, he said, “the judiciary must do work and this includes reporting in time to court as well. We have a lot of mindsets to change in order to move forward.”
According to the scorecard, the best performing court according to the legal professionals was the High Court circuit sitting in Arua which attained the highest score of 97.3 per cent in the overall assessment.
The courts were assessed on six parameters which included: Fairness in the administration of justice impartiality, professionalism, certainty, behaviour and attitude.
The Criminal Court, Supreme Court and Commercial Court Divisions received 93.2 per cent ,89.2 per cent & 86.9 per cent scores respectively mainly due to a strong perception about their impartiality, certainty, professionalism. The Land Division and Court of Appeal with 79.2 per cent and 72.2 per cent in overall assessment scores respectively were reportedly having challenges in all the six parameters.

Livingstone Ssewanyana observes that central region had a higher number of litigants (61 per cent) whose cases were mainly criminal and civil in nature. In the northern territory nearly a third of the interviews made with litigants were done with prisoner
The scorecard is meant to measure the performance of judicial officers from the perception formed by various stakeholders.
It contains performance measurements and parameters that are linked to vision, mission, values and mandate of the judiciary as given by the constitution.
Centre for Public Interest Law used and used the tools of structured interviews, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, observations and desk research to

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President Yoweri Museveni has promised to inject Shs 1 billion in the Crime Preventer’s Savings and Credit Cooperative Organization (SACCO) to enable them get startup capital to improve their businesses.

Speaking to the Crime Preventers at Lugogo this morning, President Museveni implored them to form SACCOs in order to benefit from this initiative. With this intervention, he said, in July each district will get Shs 100 million to man down shooting unemployment cases and poverty in the country.

He cautioned them to be exemplary in averting crime and eradicating poverty in their ancestral villages. “Your leaders should work with Police and Operation Wealth Creation with one crime preventer at every parish to serve as an example for the rest,” he said.

Mr. Museveni also said that he, not the former Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura, mooted the idea of enlisting the services of crime preventers.

“In the role of detecting crime, I need to sit down with your leaders to see how to handle it, criminals operate mainly in villages and if you have not yet developed village coordinators, and it is high time you do it. I regard you as a reserve army for Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF), my idea is to have a small and equipped army with a big reserve,” Museveni noted, and lauded Gen. Kayihura for offering effective leadership to the Crime Preventers.

President Museveni’s meeting with crime preventers follows an earlier meeting with their head Blaise Kamugisha in Rwakitura, where the latter  vowed to work hand in hand with police to avert the rising crime which includes abduction, torture and murder.

The National Crime Preventer’s Forum (NCPF) was founded in 2013 with the aim of promoting community policing through sensitization, awareness and outreach.

However, since the formation of NCPF, political elites and legal scholars have said their activities as illegal.

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The trial of veteran journalist Reverend Isaac Bakka has failed to kick off because the case file is incomplete.

Bakka and his three co- accused are charged with treason and have today appeared Wednesday before Nakawa Court Chief Magistrate Jamson Karemani for mention of the case, which failed to proceed.

State Prosecutor Ann Ntimba informed court that police inquiries are ongoing, and Karemani further remanded the accused to Luzira upper prison as police continues investigations.

The 68 year-old Bakka, a journalist working with BTN and Nile FM in Gulu, was allegedly kidnapped in January this year at a taxi stage in Mukono by unknown people.

Following a long search by his family members, friends and intervention of parliament and public pressure, security agencies later admitted to having picked up Bakka.

They subsequently took him to Nakawa court where he was charged with treason and remanded to Luzira prison.

Prosecution states that Bakka, a former Chaplain in Uganda Army under President Iddi Amin, connived with a one Godfrey Asea, George Ngungu and Innocent Mawe to contrive a plot to overthrow the government of Uganda between January 2017 and January 2018 within various districts in Uganda and in other countries such as Kenya and South Sudan.

This was allegedly through making utterances, acquisition of firearms and recruitment of individuals into armed forces.

The case has now been adjourned to the April 11, 2018.

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