Inmates awaiting minister’s order cry out to Judiciary

Prisoners seeking justice through the minister’s order have appealed to the Judiciary to help them speed up the process.

The inmates made the plea during the opening of the Court of Appeal criminal session at Mbarara High Court Circuit on Monday.

A total of 50 cases of rape, murder, aggravated defilement, aggravated robbery, theft, attempted murder, and forgery were heard.

While presenting their memorandum to the Deputy Chief Justice, Richard Buteera, the inmates accused the Justice minister of taking long to act.

The minister’s order is a precondition to release mentally challenged prisoners.

Inmates said they have lost hope in the order since one of them has been waiting for the same since 2006.

“Before you is an inmate in the names of U2117R Karugaba Vincent who has been on minister’s order since 2006 to date. We had developed some hope when the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Mr Nobert Mao, ordered to release inmates in such categories,” Mr Sowedi Serinya, one of the inmates, told the Deputy Chief Justice.

He said there is also delayed appeals, which has increased congestion in prisons.

The Deputy Chief Justice, Richard Buteera, said there are 40 inmates across the country awaiting the minister’s order, which he said has become a bad precedent.

“The concerns about the minister’s order have been raised to the minister and the Judiciary,” he said, adding: “The Judiciary and the Ministry of Justice set up a committee and they have been working on this.”

Justice Buteera said of the 40 prisoners awaiting the minister’s order, 19 have been resolved. He said they are working on the remaining inmates to get justice before the end of 2022.

He implores prisoners to appeal if they feel the lower court did not handle their cases in the right manner.

“We started with here because this is a criminal session and we have come to answer the issues from people who feel the judgment from the lower courts need different handling. You have a right to appeal, but when you appeal, we take a lot of concern to look at the records and look at them properly,” Justice Buteera said.

“In your memorandum, you stated that some grounds of appeal and mitigating factors are not considered. Fortunately, the procedure now is that your lawyers provide written submission in the advantage that you take your time and write all grounds of appeal which are responded to by the DPP then the court will consider both of them,” he added.

Mbarara High Court Resident Judge Joyce Kavuma said the Court of Appeal session gives an assurance that the justice system is working.

“The inmates and the rest of Mbarara community can testify that we have the appeal system and the inmates have clearly brought it out in their presentation that the system works,” she said.

Justice Kavuma said the session was timely given the number of convicts who had shown interest in appealing decisions of the lower court.

“As the inmates have stated, we pray for more High Court sessions and we believe that next year in the first quarter, we are able to have three sessions to be able to decongest the number of committals right from 777 down to 600,”she said.