Be humble while handling cases, prosecutors urged
L-R: DPP spokesperson Jacquelyn Okui, DPP Jane Frances Abodo, Country Director Human Trafficking Institute Gabrielle Massey, Senior Technical Adviser Access to Justice Rachael Odoi, UNICEF representative Muhamed El-Munir and Head of UN Office on Drugs and Crimes Sharon Nyambe at the symposium in Kampala on April 22, 2024. PHOTO/ ABUBAKER LUBOWA
What you need to know:
- Since 2016, the office of the DPP has been holding annual memorial lectures in recognition of Kagezi’s contribution to the fight against organised crime.
Prosecutors have been urged to be humble as they go about prosecuting suspected criminals.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Justice Jane Frances Abodo, reasoned that it instead takes a lot of energy to be arrogant while prosecuting cases.
“I want to urge each of you to serve with humility. It doesn’t cost a thing. Actually, being arrogant takes a lot of energy,” Justice Abodo said yesterday while opening the 7th Annual Prosecutors’ Symposium in Kampala, which has attracted close to 400 prosecutors from across the country.
“Actually, you gain so much as you give, so serve with utmost humility, transparency, integrity, and of course patriotism. I think patriotism is what we all miss,” she added.
The symposium is running a theme, ‘Strengthening the capacity for the prosecution to counter organised and emerging crimes’.
The chief government prosecutor also decried the high organised crime in the country.
She revealed that Uganda is seventh in Africa and second in East Africa in terms of organised crime.
“That is scary, that should scare us, that is why we are sitting here today,” Justice Abodo said.
“Crime is changing all the time and it would be an understatement to say every minute; you blink and it has changed like three times. So Uganda’s organised crime ranking in Africa and the region is very very high,” she added.
Organised crime is where highly centralised enterprises are set up to engage in illegal activities such as kidnapping for ransom, cargo theft, fraud, robbery, kidnapping for ransom, and the demanding of “protection” payments.
Speaking at the same event, Ms Racheal Odoi Musoke, the senior technical adviser to the Governance and Security Programme, formerly JLOS, reminded the prosecutors of how they are placed at the centre of fighting crime in society.
“So as you exercise your mandate of guiding investigations, it requires professionalism,” Ms Musoke said.
She added that because Uganda is one of the largest hosting refugee countries in Africa and the world, organised crime, particularly in the form of human trafficking, can thrive.
“So as we should strengthen our responses around our refugee and host communities, we particularly look at issues addressing crime and ensuring that we don’t have a proliferation of organised crime in this particular area,” Ms Musoke said. The three-day prosecutors’ symposium will be followed by the 7th annual Joan Kagezi Memorial Lecture on Thursday, with President Museveni expected to be the chief guest.
Since 2016, the office of the DPP has been holding annual memorial lectures in recognition of Kagezi’s contribution to the fight against organised crime.
Kagezi, then assistant DPP, was gunned down in Kiwatule, a Kampala suburb, on March 30, 2015, by unknown assassins as she returned home.
