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CID blames courts for delaying cases despite ‘overwhelming evidence’
CID cites among other cases the murder of Susan Magara (right), who was kidnapped, murdered, and dumped in Kigo off Entebbe Expressway on February 28, 2018, and Maria Nagirinya (left), a social worker who was kidnapped, killed and dumped in Mukono on August 28, 2019. PHOTOS/COURTESY/FILE
What you need to know:
- CID cites among other cases the murder of Susan Magara, who was kidnapped, murdered, and dumped in Kigo off Entebbe Expressway on February 28, 2018, and Maria Nagirinya, a social worker who was kidnapped, killed and dumped in Mukono on August 28, 2019.
- Karemani reechoed cries of insufficient funding, shortage of judges, and magistrates.
The Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) has blamed the Judiciary for causing unnecessary delays in the trial of several cases despite the “overwhelming evidence sent to court.”
Mr Charles Twine, the CID Spokesperson, said over the years, they have noticed that many cases whose evidence was fully gathered even before they went to court have not been heard to conclusion and keep backlogging.
CID cites among other cases the murder of Susan Magara, who was kidnapped, murdered, and dumped in Kigo off Entebbe Expressway on February 28, 2018, and Maria Nagirinya, a social worker who was kidnapped, killed and dumped in Mukono on August 28, 2019.
Twine says in cases like Magara and Nagirinya, detectives collected all the necessary evidence, even before the files were sanctioned by the Office of the Directorate of Public Prosecution (ODPP) for trial.
“The case of Susan Magara was expeditiously investigated and the accused were committed to High Court. In the case of Maria Nagirinya, the police expeditiously investigated this murder, assembled the evidence and the accused were committed to High Court. But once it goes to one, two, or three years without being heard, it defeats our understanding. Unfortunately, some people tend to believe it is us delaying the cases. No, we did our part,” D/ASP Twine said.
Ms Irene Nakimbugwe, the DPP deputy spokesperson, agrees with CID that indeed the evidence was collected, suspects charged and remanded but the Judiciary is yet to fix dates for trial or hearing of cases.
“It is true the files are there. It is true they collected the evidence. Their files have been there in our custody. It is not us to list those cases for trial. When police collect the evidence, we look through it and confirm. But for them to have a trial date, it is the Judiciary. When they claim they don’t have money to do that is how years go by,” Ms Nakimbugwe said told this reporter.
CID records indicate that 2020 ended with 36,881 pending cases in court compared to 40,085 pending cases recorded at the end of 2019.
Reacting to Mr Twine and Ms Nakimbugwe assertions, Judiciary Spokesperson, Mr Jameson Karemani, said the two institutions know why cases take long to be concluded despite the satisfying evidence.
Karemani reechoed cries of insufficient funding, shortage of judges, and magistrates. He added that in the current state, one judge handles cases supposed to be handled by at least five judges.
Karemani admitted that thousands of cases have been delayed in court yet they have satisfying evidence.
"They are also part of the JLOS (Justice, Law and Order Sector) institutions so they know the challenges that are faced with administration of justice generally. They know the challenges we have. Those are just three cases but we have over thousands which have been waiting and they know the reason. All those cases are ready for hearing after the suspects were committed to High Court. For instance, we’re are talking about 8,000 cases ready for hearing in Fort Portal but we don't have the manpower and resources to handle all of them. When you have 68 judges serving 45 million people what do you expect?" Mr Karemani asked.
The approved Parliament structure for High Court judges in Uganda is 82, meaning, they are less by 15.
