Court petitioned to produce Kayihura

Two people on Monday petitioned the High Court in Kampala asking it to order the Attorney General (AG) to have the former Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura released or presented in any competent court of law.

In their suit filed before the High Court Civil Division, Mr Issa Ogomba and Ms Sarah Rukundo say, “A permanent injunction restraining the respondent (AG) from continued detention of the aforementioned detainee without trial,” the court documents reads in part.

“A declaratory order that the actions of the respondent through his agent known as the Uganda Peoples Defense Forces of detaining General Kayihura without trial and beyond the mandatory required time of 48 hours is unconstitutional and violets the detainees’ right to liberty,” the court document adds.

The petitioners in their sworn affidavits added that the continued detention of the former IGP is illegal, unconstitutional and malicious and in contravention of the supreme law of Uganda.

The two individuals, who prefer being referred to as human rights activists, state that ever since the former IGP was picked from his upcountry farm in Kashagama, Lyantonde District, and airlifted to Kampala, he has never been formally charged with any criminal offence or arraigned before any court. This omission they say contravenes Articles 20, 21, 23, 24, 28 and other provisions of the Constitution.

“Since his arrest on June 13 to date, he has never been charged with any offence in any court or court martial nor released by the military on any temporary terms to his grave detriment,” the two aver in their affidavits.

They contend that in the interest of justice, they want their application to be allowed as the continued detention of the former IGP amounts to an abuse of his constitutional right to liberty, freedom and speedy trial and, if the respondent’s agents are not stopped, will result into a continued violation of the same Constitution.

“This sets an example of the country going back to the days of detention without trial under the then 1967 Constitution and Detention Act of the time that the 1995 constitution sought to remedy,” the court documents add.

In the same court last month, Mr Deusdedit Bwengye,a fourth-year student of Bishop Stuart University in Mbarara, petitioned court asking it to order various government security agencies that have held the former IGP, for the last 35 days to appear in court and show cause why he should not be freed

In his habeas corpus application, he sued the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), the Commanding Officer-in-charge of Makindye Barracks, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Attorney General (AG).

He said he is lodging the application as a public interest applicant.
“Summons be issued and directed against the respondents to show why the subject (Gen Kayihura) should not be released forthwith,” reads the court documents in part.
“The respondents (CDF, in-charge of Makindye military barracks, DPP and AG), do produce the subject of this application (Gen Kayihura) before this court or the court martial,” the court document adds.