Govt officials, departments must obey the law
What you need to know:
The issue: Abiding by the law
Our view: We hope that going forward, ministers like Sam Mayanja and other officials know their limits and stop going about directing the police to carry out orders that are not lawful.
The High Court gave marching orders to junior Lands minister Sam Mayanja that he doesn’t have the power to order around the police on which criminal charges to slap against those involved in land matters. The court further clarified that the minister doesn’t have the power to order the police to “grant” or “not to grant bond” to suspects. It was the court’s stand that such directives are a constitutional mandate for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and shouldn’t be usurped by the minister and other government officials. “It is my considered view that it is not in the 1st respondent’s (Minister Mayanja) mandate to direct the preferring of charges against any person or to order that police to grant no bond to any suspect.
This would be a violation of the rights of those individuals arrested,” ruled Justice Jamson Karemani of Kiboga High Court. He added: “It also amounts to interference with the constitutional mandate of the Director of Public Prosecutions and Uganda Police Force.” Further, in his ruling dated May 9, Justice Karemani found Minister Mayanja’s directives to be irrational and illegal. We think the ruling of the court is long overdue, as we have seen the so-called ‘powerful’ of this country cross the red lines and start ordering other government agencies, especially the police, to carry out duties in breach of the established laws of the land with impunity. We hope that going forward, ministers like Sam Mayanja and other officials know their limits and stop going about directing the police to carry out orders that are not lawful.
Government officials who issue unlawful orders should be held accountable for their actions. Furthermore, the police leadership should know what is lawful and what is not. They shouldn’t accept being ordered around and also go ahead to accept to implement the said unlawful orders. Uganda is a country run on established principles of law, with the Constitution being the supreme law of the land and the same should be adhered to by everyone, including the ministers and other government officials who act like they are untouchable. If we don’t do so, then we shall be like we are living in a jungle where everyone does what pleases them, an arrangement which is dangerous.
