Hoima High Court fire leaves many questions

On October 21, a mysterious fire gutted Hoima High Court premises at dawn, incinerating vital records linked to several land cases in the oil-rich Albertine Graben.
By the time the embers dissipated, many files in the office of the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) and registry had been reduced to ashes.

This incident bore the hallmarks of criminality and seems to follow the pattern of another fire that consumed vital files that were kept at the Resident State Attorney’s (RSA) office after thugs torched the premises. 
Could these fires be a joint enterprise by criminals working on behalf of their puppet-masters?

Badru Mugabi, who is the Hoima Resident City Commissioner, told this publication that, “There is an interest in investigation if there is a relation between the nature of incidence of those ill-minded people who could have caused this fire and we also need to understand whether it is a natural disaster or if it was a malicious fire with the intention to damage some files.”

Jeniffer Baitwamaze, a female environmental human rights defender, believes that it is the cartels behind massive land evictions in the Albertine region who orchestrated the arson, describing them as, “these defendants mostly who have evicted people from their land and they don’t want these people to attain justice”.

Lasting solutions
Hoima mayor Brian Kaboyo says local leaders ought to find “lasting solutions to make sure that these kinds of incidents don’t happen again.” This, he adds, can be done by providing more constables and adequate foot patrols to isolate criminals.

“It was around 6am when the guard wanted to hand over to the incoming guard that they saw smoke. They had no keys and they called the fire brigade who rushed to the scene, they had to break the window so that they could save some of the files,” Julius Hakiza, the Albertine region police spokesperson, disclosed, adding that “the probable cause[s] were either a suspected … short circuit or arson.”

The latest fire has placed judicial officers in Hoima in the crosshairs as some of the court orders, which Monitor has seen, show documents with suspicious signatures and an order purportedly authored by the Hoima High Court, which was not yet in existence.
These questionable documents are related to a 2,545-acre land dispute in Kapapi and Kiganja sub-counties, Hoima District.

On February 10, armed men raided these villages and evicted about 500 families despite orders from Lands minister Judith Nabakooba halting the eviction.
They claimed that they were acting on the orders of a businessman, William Gafayo Ndahura. There appears to be a repeated pattern of violence during evictions across the Albertine Graben. 

Some of the community leaders, barely a month before the eviction, were arrested and hauled into police cells on false charges—women were gang raped—violent beatings have been meted out to those who resisted evictions — property belonging to those evicted, looted and the complicit security personnel including police aided and abetted the evictions.

A woman who was raped and spoke anonymously revealed that, “On February 10, I had people banging on my door and when I tried to come out to see what was happening outside, I saw people dressed in uniforms of police and army. When I came out, they arrested me, they started beating me up and my children ran away. Some of those people who were putting on uniforms were civilians that I know.” 

She says she was taken on the side of her house and raped. “I went to the police of Biso because we feared the police of Hoima were conniving with the land grabbers. I was told that I should go back to Kigorobya [Police Post]. I was asked to go to Kitoba [Police Post] and I feared to go to Kitoba because I heard that police were arresting whoever reported. Most of my things were stolen and I have no money. I came back at home, I am struggling and pregnant and now homeless and wandering with my kids. We don’t have food and the children are not going to school,” she adds.

‘They raped me’
Another rape victim says, “On February 10, I slept in my house with my children, then at midnight they hit my door. I found many people, they were in army and police uniforms. When I came outside, they caned me and slapped me and I fell down. I saw three people I know, they tied me and others raped me.”
The rape victim tried to report at Biso Police Post and later at Kigorobya Police Post. 

“I was very weak and without money for transport and I returned home. I used traditional medicine and I went to a clinic to get a few tablets. I asked the police at Kigorobya for Form 3 [medical examination form], they refused,” she says.
She is currently ill but does not have money to conduct a medical examination at the hospital. 
Another woman whose husband was arrested on February 25, nearly a fortnight after they were evicted from Kapapi, currently lives in hiding with her family inside a forest. 

“Those people came at night and started beating us. We left our livestock and household property behind. I found a well-wisher who kept my family for two weeks, on the third week, they came with a police patrol vehicle. I ran with the children to the forest of Kimanya where I am staying with my children. My children and I are homeless, we have no food,” she says.
Peter Arinaitwe and Anthony Odur are the lawyers representing the evicted community. 

“One has to understand that powerful individuals are pushing out those communities because they are interested in the land. They anticipate once the community members have been evicted, then they will be able to negotiate with the companies and actually get money from the companies. But the people who are feeling the impact of these evictions are the community members who were found there, the illiterates who don’t understand land transfers…,” Odur reveals.

Odur says senior army and police officers are involved in the evictions. “It becomes difficult for people who are oppressed to access justice. We could actually tell in court that there is a force that is invisible.”
On October 4, Odur, who was in Hoima Town, was trailed by a man armed with a pistol who he later escaped from. 
The lawyers reported this incident to the Chief of Defence Forces and Inspector General of Police, among other offices, “but to this date no one has responded”.
Arinaitwe says his law firm received a distress call in May from the victims of the eviction. He discovered that some of the victims had been in detention for four months, while others had been arrested a month before the eviction.
“You have victims in detention and then you have an eviction of their families from their land. We found there were gross human rights violations, it was an eviction that was planned in such a way to inflict pain and suffering so that they never think about returning. Women were raped, houses razed, children rescued from fires and to make it worse, and some of those responsible were part of the justice system,” he says. 

The law firm used a three-pronged approach; secured bail for those in jail on trumped-up charges; institute a private prosecution against specific individuals under the Human Rights Enforcement Act; and institute two civil matters so that those evicted could repossess their land.

Privately prosecuted
Among those privately prosecuted is Brig Peter Ankankunda Nabasa, the Deputy 1st Division Commander; Hoima District Police Commander (DPC) Jackson Bogere; Hoima Deputy RDC Michael Kyakashari; and a prominent businessman, William Gafayo Ndahura, who are all accused of violently evicting locals. 
Charles Bainomugisha, who is the lawyer for Brig Nabasa, told Monitor that his client has not been involved in any human rights abuses and land grabbing. 

“The allegations are baseless; [meant] to tarnish his name [Nabasa]. Our client has no interest in the land which is claimed by different people. It has the registered owners, our client has never stepped on that land and has never bought any part of the land,” he says. 
Bainomugisha says his client only has a lease interest he legally acquired. 

“Our client in 2022 went to Hoima while in search of land where he can graze his cattle. He identified land which was vacated. That land belonged to the late Tito Lukyalekere, the estate has an administrator called Asiimwe Byangire who was approached and entered into negotiations and our client got a lease or rented about 700 acres in order to utilise it to graze his cattle. A lease agreement was executed in September 2022, so the allegations that he violated people’s rights are false. There is no police report implicating him,” he says.
Gafayo, who this newspaper repeatedly called on his cell-phone, said he would respond to our questions after the festive season. 
However, earlier on in March, Gafayo told Monitor that, “It is true that some people should return to the land but we refused them because they don’t own any piece of land. The minister [Nabakooba] was asked to out this directive in writing and the district security team has nowhere to start from. The minister has no powers to make [declarations] for people to go back to the land. It is the court.”

The private prosecution has also run into legal hurdles as the office of the DPP authored a letter recently informing the lawyers that it was seeking to take over the private prosecution. The lawyers fear that this is intended to nip the private prosecution in the bud. 
“We raised strong objections and said this is not a blanket mandate. Under Article 120 of the Constitution, the powers of the DPP are qualified particularly in respect to take over private prosecution. The Constitution qualifies and puts conditions. We were overruled,” Arinaitwe says.
He says they will continue challenging the interpretation of these provisions. 

“The state of the evicted [people] is deplorable and the minister ordered that they should be reinstated, which was defied. We sought interim remedies and applied for mandatory injunctions, which are intended to restore the status quo,” he adds.
But suspicions of a syndicate continue to seep across the hallowed temples of justice. 

This is after a consent judgement from Masindi High Court, which ruled that the community should not be evicted until the judgement in the main petition is disposed of, went missing on the files.
“Upon reviewing the file, we noted that both the application and the consent order resulting from it were missing from the file, yet previously when we checked the record, both documents were available. In light of the above, we were unable to certify our copies, yet this order constitutes one of the key pieces of evidence that we intend to rely on in our application No. 103 of 2023 for a mandatory injunction,” reads a letter from Arinaitwe Peter & Co. Advocates.
The lawyers are also raising concerns in regard to a court order which was issued by Chief Magistrate George Nfitundinda, and strangely bears the signature of the Assistant Registrar Iganga High Court, David Sayuni.
On October 16, Arinaitwe Peter and Co. Advocates wrote a letter to Sayuni, which raised these anomalies.

“All the orders arising from Miscellaneous Application Numbers 92 and 91 were issued on the same day, June 29, 2022. Whereas the file has the captioned orders, there are neither records of proceedings nor the applications from what the said orders arise. The record further indicates that Miscellaneous Application Number 91 for a temporary injunction was withdrawn on July 6, 2022. We compared the signature on the certified order for the temporary injunction vide Miscellaneous Application No. 91 of 2022 with that on Miscellaneous Application Number 92 of 2022, and the two signatures appear suspicious,” the letter reads in part.
The letter also points out more suspicious content. How could the orders state High Court Hoima when on the alleged date of the hearing, it had not yet been established as a High Court circuit?

Operationalising High Court circuits
On October 2, 2022, the Judiciary issued a circular operationalising six new High Court circuits which were Hoima, Iganga, Luweero, Moroto, Tororo and Rukungiri. 
This presupposes that the orders purportedly issued by the Hoima High Court on June 29, 2022, were strangely issued before the court was operationalised.

“As a judicial officer with a duty to ensure impartiality, both in and out of court and to enhance public confidence in the justice system, we kindly request you to clarify the authenticity of the orders as soon as practicable,” reads the letter.
On October 18, Sayuni, who previously worked in Hoima, responded saying, “As for the extracted order of temporary injunction signed on 23/02/2023 at Hoima High Court, purporting the same to have been issued by me on 29/06/2022, I believe this was done by the Ag. Assistant Registrar at Hoima High Court in error, but the same can be clarified by the Registrar who signed. He even has the opportunity to look at the file unlike myself who does not have the file here at Iganga High Court. Otherwise, I confirm that I signed the interim order issued on June 29, 2022, but not the temporary injunction order extracted on 23/02/2023.”
On October 19, the lawyers wrote to the Hoima Chief Magistrate George Nfitundinda, who also served as the Acting Registrar for the Hoima High Court, demanding that the “forged record” be expunged.

“When we sought clarification from His Worship David Sayuni, he clarified that he is only aware of the interim order, which he issued upon consent of both parties on the June 29. As to the order for the temporary injunction, he advised to seek clarification from the person who was in charge of Hoima High Court as the acting registrar. Since you were the one in charge of this station at the time, we hereby notify you that the above order is a forgery with criminal ramifications based on the following glaring observations,” the letter partly reads.

The lawyers in their letter demanded that the officers responsible for the issuance of the order be held to account and the missing record in the file be traced and restored. 

“The actions herein above described do not only cast the justice system in bad light, but also erode peoples’ confidence in the courts of law,” they wrote.
Chief Magistrate Nfitundinda did not pick our repeated calls to his phone to respond to these allegations and it remains inconclusive to infer that there was any wrongdoing on his part.