Bobi Wine: Bail removal is targeted at the Opposition
Left to right: National Unity Platform (NUP) Secretary General David Lewis Rubongoya, party president Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, and Nakawa West legislator Joel Ssenyonyi arrive at Kigo prison in Kampala yesterday. PHOTO | DAVID LUBOWA
What you need to know:
- Cabinet move. Last Friday, Cabinet endorsed criminal justice reforms to deny suspects on capital offences bail or police bond. Cabinet sources singled out suspects on murder, rape, robbery and treason charges, among others.
- The Attorney General proposed that Article 23(4) (b) and Section 25 of the Police Act be amended by Parliament, both of which require a suspect to be released on police bond if not charged in court within 48 hours, to qualify the period as “forty-eight business hours”.
National Unity Platform (NUP) leader Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, has described President Museveni’s proposal to deny suspects on capital offences bail as a handy tool to suppress dissenting voices.
“It is clear that this bail thing that is being peddled to target the Opposition politicians. Gen Museveni knows that whoever tries to oppose him, he will put him in for as long as he wants and that is the reason as to why he is bringing it,” Bobi Wine said yesterday.
The Opposition leader made the comment after visiting incarcerated NUP legislators Mr Allan Ssewanyana of Makindye West and Kawempe North representative Muhammad Ssegirinya in Kigo Prison.
President Museveni reawakened the debate on scrapping bail for suspected capital offenders while delivering an address at last month’s Benedicto Kiwanuka Memorial Lecture.
Constitutional law experts have warned that such a pursuit threatens the presumption of a suspect’s innocence until proven guilty.
The right to bail is a fundamental right enshrined in Article 23 (6) of the 1995 Constitution. Its basis is found in Article 28 of the same Constitution which states that an accused person is to be presumed innocent until he/she is proved or he/she pleads guilty.
“If there was no bail, you can only imagine what Dr [Kizza] Besigye would have gone through,” Bobi Wine said, referring to treason charges that were recently dropped after spanning two years. “It is clear the two MPs that I have come to see are just victims of trumped-up charges… It is now upon the people in the Opposition, especially in Parliament to fight against such a law because it is targeting us.”
Bobi Wine also revealed that Mr Ssewanyana and Mr Ssegirinya were what he said were state actors. He added that Mr Ssegirinya sustained injuries to his foot that are still being nursed.
Uganda People’s Defence Forces spokesperson Brig Flavia Byekwaso told Daily Monitor last evening that she had not registered any cases of torture. She offered to authoritatively comment about the allegations after engaging authorities at Kigo Prison.
Asked about the wounded foot that Mr Ssegirinya displayed during his last court appearance, Brig Byekwaso said: “We all know how many times that honourable (Ssegirinya) has feigned sickness? A wound on the foot is a normal thing and does not necessarily mean that he was tortured. What if he stepped on something sharp? I am hesitant to believe in Ssegirinya’s story because he is very comical.”
