MPs demand speedy trial for Rwenzururu suspects

A section of legislators yesterday asked government to ensure a speedy trial for those who are implicated in the Kasese clashes that occurred in 2016.
The lawmakers made the call after Mr Jackson Karugaba Kafuuzi, the deputy Attorney General, presented a statement on the status of prosecution of royal guards of the Obusinga Bwa Rwenzururu (Rwenzururu Kingdom), some of whom remain in incarceration. 
The report also coincides with the fifth anniversary of the clashes.
Ms Anita Among, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, said it was unfair to have people incarcerated for all the previous years without having a fair trial.

“We want these things resolved. The health of our people matters. We want a speedy trial. We cannot have these people incarcerated for all long without trial. Let’s have these people in prison treated. They are human beings,” Ms Among said.
Mr Medard Lubega Ssegona, the Busiro County MP (NUP), said the major cause of backlog in cases was lack of funds for sessions.
“But even in a case as prominent as this involving a cultural leader of this country, the government cannot take extra steps to provide the funding necessary. This is a case which could be handled even in Fort Portal (a city in western Uganda) within one month and concluded,” Mr Ssegona said.

He wondered why it was so difficult for the government to sit down with the leadership of the cultural institution to resolve the matter.
Though Mr Atkins Katusabe, the Bukonjo County West MP (FDC), wanted to table names of nine members (from the Kasese clashes) who had lost their lives during incarceration, Ms Among advised that he returns at a later date with more concrete evidence including death certificates.

In response, Mr Kafuuzi said the government was making efforts to commence the trial.
“We are liaising with the Judiciary to get a judge for this matter as soon as possible. We are also in touch with the prisons to see that those whose health needs urgent attention should be evacuated and relocated to a better facility,” he said.  
Ms Among referred the matter to the Committee on Human Rights, which must report back to the House in two weeks’ time.

Background
On November 27, 2016, a joint force of the police and the military raided the palace of the Rwenzururu King, Charles Wesley Mumbere, on Kibanzanga Road in Kasese Town.  
The offensive led to the death of more than 100 people, most of them Rwenzururu Kingdom loyalists, and the arrest of more than 200 others, including the king. 
In January, 132 royal guards, 17 of them women, were granted bail by Jinja High Court Justice Jeanne Rwakakoko, but other people remain in detention.