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.

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In the wake of the current clamour by some supporters of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) led by Kyankwanzi Woman MP Anne Maria Nankabirwa, seeking the amendment of the Constitution to remove the age limit clause, former Makindye East Member of Parliament Mike Mabikke has said that Uganda is on its way to becoming a ‘failed state’.

Appearing on the NBS TV talk show ‘Morning Breeze’, Mr Mabikke, a former spokesperson of the Go Forward presidential candidate John Patrick Amama Mbabazi, said ‘there is no country that has had the same president for 30 years and remained stable’.

“If a nation can move on without a certain leader, then it’s not a failed. Uganda is on its way to being a failed state.  It will be after Museveni that we’ll establish whether this country has a firm foundation or not,” Mabikke said.

The 1995 Constitution sets the maximum age for any person seeking to be president of Uganda at 75 years, but yesterday, at the closure of a one-week retreat for Ministers and Permanent Secretaries, Kyankwanzi Woman MP Nankabirwa handed over the age limit removal petition to NRM Chairman Yoweri and pundits say the clamour is aimed at paving way for the President who, according to the 1995 Constitution, is currently serving his last term, to contest for the presidency in 2021.

Born in 1944, Mr Museveni, who has been in power for 31 years since 1986, will be 76 years by the time of the next election cycle in 2021.

Further, Mr Mabikke said the current clamour is somehow akin to that of 2003, which led to the removal of term limits.

“Ugandans shouldn’t be forgetful. We saw how the removal of term limits started. Same trend. It is a carefully choreographed to seem like this is what people want. Mr Museveni is setting a stage for disaster,” the controversial former MP said.

To buttress his point Mr Mabikke gave an example of Libya under former president Muammar Gadhafi, who ruled the oil-rich country for 42 years before being ousted in a bloody war that left the country in shambles.

“Success without succession is failure. Libya under Gaddafi had the best housing structure. But all that crumbled,” he said adding that Mr Museveni was once against tampering with the age limit issue.

“Museveni once said he saw more sense in age limit than in term limit. This project is proving otherwise,” he said.

But Senior Presidential Press Secretary Don Wanyama, while acknowledging Mr Museveni received the age limit removal petition, said his boss ‘made no comment’. He however, added that it is the people of Uganda to determine the leadership. “I see nothing criminal/illegal about people calling for an amendment. Law is not cast in stone,” Mr Wanyama added.

Meanwhile, Mabikke, when asked about his former boss Amama Mbabazi, said the Go Forward team was still ‘evaluating’ the situation following the-now contested 2016 elections.

“He (Mbabazi) is in the country. He is evaluating. Uganda is at crossroads so we need evaluation; our performance was great. We never believed in Kiggundu’s (Electoral Commission boss) results,” Mabikke said.

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The Member of Parliament for Nakawa Michael Kabaziguruka is set to appear before the UPDF General Court Martial (GCM) today.

Kabaziguruka, who is charged with treason alongside 22 other people, is being held at Kigo prison but missed the last hearing session after court was informed that he was sick.

In early June the MP was arrested and taken to the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) at Kireka for interrogation and at the time police chief General Kale Kayihura said they had gotten intelligence information linking the MP to some people involved in subversive activities.

And weeks ago, while contributing to debate during the vetting of Ministers, Opposition Members of Parliament have asked the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga to explain the circumstances surrounding the arrest of their colleague Kabaziguruka.

Led by the Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LoP) Winnie Kiiza, they expressed concern over the arrests by security personnel taking place in the country, including the arrest of Mr Kabaziguruka.

According to the LOP, Mr Kabaziguruka was arrested without serving the Speaker with the summons, which flouts the law.

Elijah Okupa, the Kasilo MP also weighed in and demanded that Mr Kabaziguruka be produced before court, if he has any charges to answer to.

“We demand that if there is a case, let the Hon. Kabaziguruka be produced in court,” Mr Okupa charged.

In response Speaker Kadaga promised to follow up the matter, saying: “I will handle this with the Vice President and ensure that our colleague is handled appropriately.”

However, nothing public has since been heard of the Speaker Kadaga’s efforts over the matter.

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