A video grab showing MP Paul Akamba (in suit) being approached by armed plain cloth men at the Anti-Corruption Court premises as he left after being granted bail on June 14, 2024.
The Uganda Law Society (ULS) has condemned the violent rearrest of Busiki South Member of Parliament Paul Akamba, saying the assault by unknown armed men erodes the rule of law in the country.
The incident happened after Mr Akamba was granted bail at the Anti-Corruption Division of the High Court last Friday.
Mr Bernard Oundo, the ULS president, said the incident evokes memories of the 2005 invasion of the High Court in Kampala by security personnel to physically extract suspects, including Opposition politician Kizza Besigye, shortly after they were granted bail.
The then Principal Judge, Justice James Ogoola, in a poem, derided the raid as a “rape on the Temple of Justice”, and it triggered protest by Judiciary and legal fraternity.
In a statement at the weekend, Mr Oundo said: “Mr Akamba’s abduction re-emphasises Uganda’s rapid return to the dark past of arrests and detentions and reflects the erosion of progress in the quest for the rule of law.’’
“This distressing trend must be urgently and jointly addressed by all stakeholders to avoid further entrenchment,” he added.
On Friday afternoon, the MP, who had been released on a cash bail of Shs13m, was in a cheerful mood with his family and friends as he breathed a sigh of relief after spending two nights in Luzira prison. However, the cheerful mood was quickly disrupted by men in plain clothes who pounced to rearrest the legislator.
The legislator was their target as they forcefully shoved everyone around him to the extent of pulling out AK47 rifles and cocking them in a bid to scare away his confidants.
When they managed to violently rearrest him, he was pushed into a waiting white van before speeding off with him to an unknown destination.
His supporters and family members were left wailing.
“At least take him peacefully,” one of his family members was heard shouting.
ULS has called for an immediate investigation into the abduction and prosecution of those behind the MP’s violent rearrest.
Besigye incident
In 2005 and 2007, ugly incidents unfolded at Criminal Division of the High Court, when Dr Kizza Besigye and his co-accused, alleged to be members of the Peoples’ Redemption Army insurgent group, had their bail applications frustrated when men dressed in black T-shirts stormed the court with the intention of rearresting them.
The action of the men later nicknamed Black Mambas, led to protest by lawyers and a section of judges.
The Judiciary public relations officer, Mr James Ereemye Mawanda, yesterday said the Judiciary condemns the rearrest of Mr Akamba.
“Their actions erode the image of the Judiciary and it is also not good for democracy. Over time, the Chief Justice has made it clear that courts should be respected,”Mr Ereemye said yesterday.
A group of security operatives, who later came to be known as the Black Mamba, storm the High Court in Kampala to re-arrest Dr Kizza Besigye and 22 other PRA suspects on November 16, 2005. PHOTO / FILE
The vice of rearresting suspects had gone down in the recent past.
The last known case happened on September 11, 2019, when plain-clothed security personnel rearrested four suspects accused of being behind the murder of former police spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi.
They had been released on bail by the International Crimes Division of the High Court. But security agents took charge of the main gate of the court and blocked the accused persons from leaving before grabbing and pushing them into a waiting van.
Following the ugly scene, Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo issued a statement, condemning the actions of the security operatives.
“This high handedness in the rearrest of persons released by courts is a direct affront to the much-cherished rule of law in Uganda. Such blatant actions, as this one, sadly lead to people’s loss of faith in the courts of judicature, which can only result in grave ramifications where people choose not to come to the courts of law, but take the law into their hands,” Chief Justice Alphonse Owiny-Dollo said in his statement in 2019.
“We, therefore, condemn in the strongest language this wanton disregard to the independence of the Judiciary, which is contrary to the protection of the Judiciary enshrined under Article 128 of the Constitution,” he added.
Because of the rampant illegal arrests of suspects at the time, then IGP Martins Okoth-Ochola issued guidelines to police officers on how to conduct arrests in a lawful manner.
Core to the guidelines was that no person should be arrested by police without a formal complaint filed at a police station.
Mr Ochola also ordered officers to always have an arrest warrant detailing which offences the suspects are accused of and also informing the suspects of their rights, especially on legal representation.
He also demanded that the police officers should, before effecting the arrest, inform the nearby area police.
Mr Ochola also warned all those who would not adhere to his guidelines that they would face the disciplinary unit of the police, the Police Standards Unit.
In April 2019, while giving a key address during the Benedicto Kiwanuka Memorial Day, former Chief Justice Samuel Wako Wambuzi, decried intimidation and disrespect of the Judiciary.
“In the first place, there remains significant intimidation and disrespect of the Judiciary and judicial officers. One of the ways this has manifested has been in terms of the defiance of court orders by government officials,” retired Chief Justice Wambuzi said in his remarks.
He went on to cite the raid on the High Court in 2005 and 2007 by the Black Mamba.
Likewise, in January 2017, Rwenzururu King, Wesley Mumbere was rearrested by the security personnel shortly after he had been released on bail by the Jinja High Court. He was then facing several charges in connection with a 2016 raid on his palace by combined security forces on grounds that he was harbouring rebels.
The charges
Last Monday, Akamba was arraigned in court and charged with corruption alongside his colleagues Yusuf Mutembuli and Cissy Namujju Dionizza.
Prosecution alleges that the three legislators solicited a bribe of 20 percent from Ms Mariam Wangadya, the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission (UHRC), on May 13, 2024 at Hotel Africana.
They allegedly claimed they could influence the Parliamentary Budget Committee to increase the UHRC's budget for 2024/2025 financial year in exchange for the bribe.
