Concern as Mbarara main prison becomes death trap

The deputy resident city commissioner (RCC) for North Division in Mbarara City, Mr Robert Kanusu, has decried the poor conditions at Kakiika Government Prison following the death of two inmates.

Mr Kanusu said they learnt about the deaths last month.

“We found out that they died under unclear circumstances but authorities here claimed they died of natural causes. They claim they were infected with HIV and treated but ended up dying,” he said on Wednesday.

“We need to investigate this further to ensure there is zero tolerance for torture as reported by members of the public,” he said.

Mr Kanusu said the two prisoners had been arrested in May on charges of theft.

“One died on June 23, whereas the other died on June 26, but they were all arrested from Rubindi,” he said.

Mr Kanusu, who made an impromptu visit to the facility on Tuesday, told journalists that he was following up on numerous complaints from the community concerning the status of the prison.

 He said the facility that was made to accommodate 60 inmates now has 843 prisoners and that at times, numbers swell to more than 1,000.

“The world recommended figures for this facility are now supposed to be 114 inmates given its space and services available. Unfortunately the number has skyrocketed and that’s too much. It’s very inhuman, our brothers and sisters there are living like animals herded in crowds,” he said.

The deputy RCC also said there is another problem of inmates arrested on petty offences staying long in prison on remand.

“Many of these prisoners claim they have never appeared in court, others that they don’t know whether they have files. This is a very big weakness with our judicial system, the prison authorities say their work is to keep prisoners. The Judiciary should make sure these people are expeditiously prosecuted to reduce this congestion,” he said.

The South West regional prisons commander, Mr Selestino Twesigye, who refused to comment on the death of two inmates at the facility, said they have no say on issues of congestion.

“For us our role is to keep prisoners that are brought to us, we are at the receiving end and, therefore, we have no say on issues to do with congestion,” he said.

Mr Twesigye said most inmates that congest the prison are always on remand.

“The prisoners appear in courts where they committed an offence, most of these are remanded for 14 days before appearing again in courts, and it will be so challenging to bring these prisoners across the country back to appear in court here in Mbarara,”he added.

Mr Twesigye refused to comment on other issues such as alleged torture of prisoners, and blocking of their relatives from visiting them.

Rising trend

According to Uganda Prisons Service (UPS) Acting Director for Rehabilitation and Reintegration, Mr Milton Tiyo, currently there are 68,000 prisoners against a capacity of 19,000 inmates, all accommodated in 259 prisons all over the country.

He said out of the 68,793 prisoners, 33,457are convicts and the rest on remand. Of the convicts, 1,400 are female and also make up 1,600 of those on remand. Last month, this newspaper reported that inmates in prisons and police cells in West Nile Sub-region spend nights standing or squatting due to congestion. The findings are contained in a report by the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC). The affected facilities are Arua government prison, Arua central police cells and Yumbe prison.

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