Illegal detention: Court awards four suspects Shs15m each

The High Court in Kampala has awarded Shs15m to each of the four people for illegally being detained by the State House Anti-corruption Unit led by Lt Col Edith Nakalema beyond the constitutionally mandated 48 hours, without being formally charged before court.
Presiding judge Musa Ssekaana on Thursday, ruled that the four suspects, were detained at Kabalagala Police Station in Kampala for five days, a period beyond the constitutionally recommended 48 hours.
The suspects, who had worked for Mbarara District Local Government, were led by Mr Felix Cuthbert Esoku, the Chief Administrative Officer.
Others are Godlive Nayebare, Rosali Karuhanga and Emmanuel Himbisa.
Article 23 (2) of the Constitution states that when someone is arrested, he/she must be brought to court within 48 hours.
Likewise, Article 23 (4) states that when one is unlawfully arrested or detained, he/she is entitled to compensation.
“With the consideration to the submissions of counsel and the above principles, I award the applicants a sum of Shs10m each for illegal detention,” ruled justice Ssekaana.
He added: “The applicants are also awarded Shs5m as punitive damages against the 1st respondent (Attorney General) for the gross violation of human rights and Constitution, as well as to deter security agencies from repeating this conduct against it’s citizenry,”
However, the judge did not find any evidence in the claims by the four officials that they were tortured and subjected to degrading inhuman treatment while in police detention.
The group was arrested last year by Lt Col Nakalema unit on charges of abuse of office in connection with public land in Mbarara.
Further in his decision, the judge rejected the request by the officials to stop their criminal prosecution, arguing that he was presiding over a civil court and it wouldn’t be legally proper to interfere with their criminal prosecution.
“This is not legally proper for this court sitting in a civil matter to bar the proceedings in a criminal trial of the applicants yet whatever defenses raised by them can be properly handled by the criminal court,” held justice Ssekaana.

Operation
The court also in its decision, remained silent on the issue of finding out whether Lt Col Nakalema’s unit exists illegally as it does not have any enabling law to back up its work.
The petitioners had contended that the unit is operating without an enabling law and infringes on the functions of established anti-corruption agencies such as the Inspector General of Government (IGG).
The officials had also sued the Attorney General, Director of Public Prosecutions, the director CID and officer-in-charge of Kabalagala Police Station.
Court also awarded them costs.

ISSUE
The court also in its decision, remained silent on the issue of finding out whether the Lt Col Nakalema’s unit exists illegally as it does not have any enabling law to back up its work.