Thomas Kwoyelo: Former LRA commander on trial

Thomas Kwoyelo faces more than 70 charges - including murder, rape and the recruitment of child soldiers.

He becomes the first LRA commander to be tried by a Ugandan court, marking a watershed moment for the country’s judicial system.

Mr Kwoyelo has consistently denied the charges against him. Thomas Kwoyelo appeared briefly via video link from his Kampala prison for this trial which is now being held in Gulu city, in northern Uganda. This is the same region that was terrorised by the LRA.

Mr Kwoyelo has spent the last 14 years in pre-trial detention, which analysts partly attribute to the scale and complexity of the alleged crimes.

Joseph Kony formed the LRA in Uganda more than two decades ago, and claimed to be fighting to install a government based on the Bible’s 10 Commandments.

LRA atrocities
The group was notorious for chopping off people’s limbs and abducting children to use as soldiers and sex slaves. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced from their homes by the conflict.

It operated mostly in northern Uganda at first, then shifted to the Democratic Republic of Congo where Mr Kwoyelo was arrested in 2009, and later the Central African Republic.

The LRA has largely been wiped out. But its leader Mr Kony, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, has never been apprehended.

Friday’s trial is taking place in Gulu at the International Crimes Division of the High Court, seen as Uganda’s answer to the ICC in The Hague.

Multiple witnesses are expected to give their accounts of what happened to the court.
A team which includes members of the prosecution, defence and victims’ representatives will travel around the affected communities for three days, updating people on the case.

Mr Kwoyelo has previously appeared in court as part of pre-trial hearings, but the case has repeatedly been postponed.

Human Rights Watch has previously criticised the delays in this case and says in general there has been limited accountability for crimes committed during the 25-year conflict including abuses by Ugandan state forces.

In 2021, senior LRA commander Dominic Ongwen was jailed for 25 years by the ICC, who decided not to give him a maximum life sentence because he had been abducted as a child and groomed by rebels who had killed his parents.

Mr Kwoyelo says he too was abducted by LRA fighters at the age of 12 while walking to school.

Thousands of former LRA members have been granted amnesty under a controversial Ugandan law, after leaving and renouncing the rebel group.

But this option was not given to Mr Kwoyelo, prompting accusations the denial was politically motivated.

As his case drags on, there are concerns the funding may run out, causing further delays to the justice his alleged victims so crave.

Genesis of the matter 
Captured in 2009 in the thickets of Garamba forests, Mr Kwoyelo, alias Latoni, was one of the top commanders of Mr Joseph Kony’s army.  

Mr Kwoyelo, the first LRA commander to be tried by Uganda’s International Crimes Division (ICD), holds the record of the world’s longest international crimes trial, making 15 years by September this year, if nothing is done.

Mr Kwoyelo is facing 93 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity resulting from his role as a top LRA commander during the war in northern Uganda.

Mr Kwoyelo has been in detention since the Ugandan army captured him in 2008, and his trial has progressed at a slow pace. 

He first appeared before the ICD in 2011. 

The start of his trial was delayed due to preliminary objections raised by his lawyers, who argued that he was entitled to amnesty under Uganda’s amnesty law, which was valid at the time of his capture.