Two top city lawyers and the police spokesperson Fred Enanga have said that the police legal team cannot defend the Inspector General of Police General Kale Kayihura, who has been summoned by the Makindye Chief Magistrate’s court to answer to charges related to ‘police brutality’.

Last week, 20 lawyers led by Abdullah Kiwanuka instituted criminal proceedings against the IGP and other senior officers for reportedly failing to supervise their juniors who beat up Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) presidential flag bearer Dr Kizza Besigye’s supporters as they lined the Gayaza and Entebbe roads in the Kampala suburbs to welcome him from a two-month remand in Luzira maximum security prison.

Debating the matter the two lawyers, Mr Oscar Kihika, and Nicholas Opiyo noted that Gen Kayihura had been sued as an individual and that as such he cannot benefit from the services of the police legal team.

“The Uganda Police legal team can’t defend Kayihura; he is in court as an individual. The police team doesn’t have such a mandate,” Mr Opiyo, who was appearing on NBS TV talk show ‘Morning Breeze’ alongside Mr Kihika, said.

Weighing in on debate Mr Kihika concurred with his ‘learned colleague’, noting that: ‘There’s no better exercise of the law and evidence on how far we have come than this Kayihura case’.

Mr Kihika further noted that this is not the first time a senior police officer has been dragged to court, adding however, that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) could take over the case, investigate and establish whether there is enough evidence for prosecution to proceed.

‘This case will be an interesting addition to our jurisprudence; the DPP may decide to take over this prosecution given that this is a private case. That remains to be seen,’ Mr Kihika, who also heads the National Resistance Movement (NRM) legal team said, adding: ‘It’s no remarkable case; this has been done before. IGP going to court is not an indictment of the entire police force. This is not the first time a senior police officer has been dragged to court’.

And, contacted for comment on the matter police spokesperson Enanga reiterated their legal team would in no way involve itself with the private investigators’ case against Mr Kayihura.

“Of course, our legal team is out of this; true. He is being sued as an individual and he will have his legal team represent him. However, what is important to know is that he has not been served (with summons); the secretary at the office and even (people) at his home (can attest to that),” Mr Enanga said on phone today.

Meanwhile, in a related development Mr Opiyo of Chapter Four, a civil society organization that deals with legal matters, said the move by ‘private investigators’ to sue Mr Kayihura is indicative of the progress made in the rule of law in Uganda.

‘The level of civic courage, the kind that brings private prosecution against Kayihura, demonstrates how far we have come,’ Mr Opiyo, a former Secretary of the Uganda Law Society (ULS), said.

Asked who can dare arrest the IGP in case he ignores court summons, Opiyo said: ‘Anybody. Everyone is empowered to arrest anyone and handover to the police’.

He added that if Kayihura ignores the summons, court can either issue fresh warrants or even an arrest warrant.

‘Kayihura is a lawyer. He should subject himself to the due process of the law. What better way to prove one’s innocence?’ Mr Opiyo challenged.

Stories Continues after ad

The Uganda Law Society (ULS) has reiterated its commitment to ensure that the errant police officers who recently participated in the indiscriminate beating up of Dr Kizza Besigye’s supporters, and their supervisors face the law.

According to the ULS President Francis Gimara, the lawyers’ body will seek to legally pursue the individual police officers implicated, in line with the October 2015 Constitutional Court ruling in which Justices Augustine Nshimye, Richard Buteera, Eldad Mwangusya, Prof. Lillian Tibatemwa and Fredrick Egonda-Ntende held that ‘police officers and other state agents implicated in the violation of human rights will be held liable as individuals and not as institutions’.

‘… the time has come for legal practitioners to consider in cases of this nature (brutality) adding as parties the perpetrators and their supervisors of challenged actions in their personal capacity so that they can face civil consequences for their willful disregard of the fundamental rights and freedoms of the people of this country,’ the five-panel Coram unanimously decided. Previously, the Attorney General, the principal government legal advisor, would take on the liabilities of all government officers implicated in rights violations.

Mr Gimara’s comments come in the wake of reports that a group of lawyers led by Abdullah Kiwanuka and acting as ‘private prosecutors’ had sued the Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura and his subordinates, all who have been summoned to appear before the Makindye Chief Magistrates Court next Wednesday.

The officers, some of who are already facing charges before the police administrative court, include Senior Superintendents of Police (SSP) Andrew Kaggwa and Samuel Bamuzibire, the former Kampala Metropolitan Police south commander and the former KMP Field Force Unit (FFU) commander, respectively. Others are Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) James Ruhweza, the KMP Operations Commander; KMP South operations Commander Wesley Nganizi, former KMP North deputy Commander Geoffrey Kaheebwa; and Moses Nanoka, the District Police Commander Wandegeya Police Division.

Further, Mr Gimara said the ULS, which has a membership of over 1800 lawyers, would offer free legal (pro bono) services to the victims of the recent police brutality.

In a related development, Police Spokesperson Fred Enanga has said that IGP Kayihura and his subordinates are yet to receive any court summons. Enanga also argued that the officers were not acting in their personal capacity but as police officers working under an institution, the Uganda Police Force (UPF).

However, Mr Kiwanuka, who is leading the private prosecutors, claimed that the individual police officers had refused to receive the summonses, opting to be summoned through the IGP.

By press time it was not possible to establish what would happen in case Mr Kayihura and the other police officers snub the court summonses.

Over the past one month the police has come under severe criticism from the public for its excessive use of force that included beating civilians with shepherd canes (Kiboko) and most recently, the screening on social media of a police driver knocking down a man who was by the roadside. The man, who fell on the tarmac, was also kicked in the ribcage by a plain-clothed man suspected of being a security operative.

Stories Continues after ad