Bail: What does the President want?

Recently, President Museveni has sounded an alarm that he wants courts not to grant bail to suspects of capital offences such as murder, terrorism, treason aggravated rape and defilement. 

The President reiterated his wish at the commemoration of the fallen former Chief Justice Bendicto Kiwanuka at the High Court building.

Generally, in Uganda, and elsewhere in Africa, the major challenge facing the Judiciary is the declining public confidence due to inordinate delays in dispensing justice, corruption and politicisation of the Judiciary. 

The situation is discerningly more difficult because of the general misconception of what politics and the law are all about by leaders who pursue partisan interests.

The word politics in this country has been given a strange connotation, something up there in the sky, something special and for a selected few only. 

Practitioners of politics seem to think that politics means mudslinging, telling lies and mean scheming. Unfortunately, that’s not politics.
Politics is the art of managing society. It arises out of human social life, differing interests and viewpoints. It has been said it’s about who gets what, when and how. 

It is an arena where conflicts arising from such disagreements are fought out. Politics role is to aggregate, adjust and settle these conflicts. Consequently, politics is unavoidable characteristic of human existence as food, sex or play.

I am sure the President will agree with me, that our country has had a history of mechanically trumped up charges and trials against political opponents that drag endlessly in courts. As an embodiment of principles, precedent and continuity, the law offers remedies for those affected.

In December 1963, Kwame Nkrumah, then President of Ghana survived an attempted assassination. 

The President dismissed his chief Justice Sir Arku Korsah for granting bail and acquitting the suspects for lack of evidence.  Nkrumah was accussed of being drunk with power and subjecting the population of Ghana to the morals of the Mafia.

The upshot of the above is that the grant of bail is the constitutional discretion of courts exercised judiciously on merit. Most of President Museveni’s allies and foes, ministers, military officers and advisors have benefited from it.

Some of them include former presidential candidates Col (Rtd) Kizza Besigye, Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine and Lt Gen Henry Tumukunde. 
Others are Gen Kale Kaihura, Gen Moses Ali, Gen David Tinyefuza aka Sejusa,  Maj Gen Jim Muhwezi, Mwesigwa Rukutana, Christopher Aine, Abdul Kitata and others bailed by the General Court Martial. 

Imagine if all these were never bailed yet prosecution of their cases is not in sight many years down the road!
Since National Resistance Movement captured power in 1986, courts have been granting bail to  alleged capital offenders. 

When former Energy minister, Dr Andrew Kayiira was gunned down on March 6, 1987, 10 days after he was acquitted by the same Court of plotting to overthrow Museveni’s government, three suspects John Katabaazi, Peter Kiwanuka and Silvester Wadda were granted bail by High Court, for lack of evidence that the accused persons participated in the murder of the accused.

Mr President, from your vantage position as head of state, head of government, commander in chief and fountain of honour, it is your duty to ensure that our country is governed justly.

Benjamin Mkapa,  the former 3rd president of Tanzania said Justice is a necessary precondition for peace and development. Jimmy Carter, the former  president of the United States, said “the sad duty of politicians is to advocate for justice in a sinful world”
Martin Luther King, the American civil rights leader, said:  “The presence of justice is the honorable motive of politics and the law.”

If suspects such as MPs Mohammed Ssegirinya and Allan Ssewanyana are not handled with the required neutrality, the institutions of the state suffer enormously from credibility crisis in terms of winning the war against crime. 

George Ntambaazi            Political scientist and lawyer 
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