Sensitise people on the dangers of mob justice
A mob arrests a suspect criminal
What you need to know:
The issue: Mob justice.
Our view: This form of (in)justice is symptomatic of an underlying psychosomatic disorder occasioned by psychological factors among the people who either feel the justice system does not give them quick dividends or there is a sociological problem in society we are not addressing.
In something similar to a movie scene, a group of about 50 daring boda boda cyclists on Tuesday afternoon, in what can be described as a dramatic attack, stormed Itojo Hospital in Ntungamo District, western Uganda, picked a patient from the causality ward, took him out and summarily killed him from the hospital compound.
In a revenge mission, the cyclists overpowered the hospital security and lynched Medard Ayebazibwe, 21. He was accused of murdering their colleague, a fellow boda boda rider. Apparently, the boda boda cyclists were responding inappropriately to a wave of frequent murders of their colleagues and theft of the motorcycles in the district.
Denis Mwijukye, 24, a boda boda cyclist, had been murdered on Saturday and his body was found on Sunday morning. The lynching, which has come to characterise society today, is gaining currency among members of society as a way of settling their scores against suspected thieves, robbers, rapists, land grabbers, murderers, among others.
This is not a positive and desired trend; it is a worrying trend where people are taking the law in their own hands to settle scores. This form of (in)justice is symptomatic of an underlying psychosomatic disorder occasioned by psychological factors among the people who either feel the justice system does not give them quick dividends or there is a sociological problem in society we are not addressing.
Left to happen unabated, the young growing population may begin to think it’s the order of the day. There is an adage from one of the African dialects which goes: “when a mother steals while carrying a baby on her back, she risks introducing the baby to the same habit.”
These extrajudicial killings that people carry out have a ripple effect in society, while at the same time, the young ones may construe them to be acceptable in conflict resolution.
It’s in the vein that government should consider a national counselling session to sensitise people on the dangers of easily passing judgment against people perceived to have committed an offence and thereafter lynch them because in the process, the innocent will also start to pay the ultimate price just because they were suspected to be offenders.
But there is also the rule of natural justice; everyone should be heard before determination of the offence.
