UGANDA'S TWO SYSTEMS OF JUSTICE

After independence in Uganda, peculiar system of justice came to be established. A lenient one for the elites and harsh and brutal one for the peasant masses. When peasants violate the law, punishment is swift and brutal but when the elites ran a foul of the law, recourse is made to all sorts of Latin writs, such as HABEAS CORPUS and other legal technicalities.

In July 2017, Jane Francis Namara was knocked dead by the speeding car of the Secretary General of the ruling party National Resistance Movement. Mr Rogers Mulindwa, head of communications at NRM secretariat, issued a statement and he said the deceased “reluctantly rammed into the car”. case closed, One can ask who knocked who? Arua Municipality member of parliament, Ibrahim Abiriga was fined Shs 40,000 by City Hall court after being found guilty of committing a public nuisance.The ordinance prescribes a penalty of a fine not exceeding two currency points (Shs 40,000) or imprisonment not exceeding two months or both for any person who contravenes any of its provisions. To the best of my knowledge among the importances of punishments is to deter potential Criminals. Hopefully this ruling meets the significance of punishments. Recently we saw Frank Gashumba paraded with clear evidence of fraud, drugs among others but the next moment the man is on facebook issuing all sorts of statements.

One may argue that the cases above covered different crimes. If so, how about cases where an elite and a peasant infringed exactly the same law?? In such case, one would expect stiffer penalties on the elites because they were to "know the law" since among others these are law makers.

Let's consider this, on mere speculation that certain NGOs in Uganda are not supporting Age limit Amendments. The state operatives raid their offices with default search warrant and freeze all the accounts on mere speculation so called " From our intelligence". However this intelligence failed to work on Rebecca Otengo, Woman MP for Alebtong District, for the embezzlement of funds and the loss of huge sums of money slated for Peace, Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP) in northern Uganda. The Temagalo land debacle in 2008 saw billions of shillings of Uganda’s workers money entrusted to the National Social Security Funds (NSSF) used to buy 400 acres of land. I didn't hear state unleashing those measurements of freezing Amama's accounts nor Rebecca.

It's more bizarre when it comes to case involving heads of state, the late I.k Acheampong was alleged to have mismanaged Ghana's economy and robbed the country of several million pounds sterling that he stashed away in swis bank accounts. Yet when arrested, lawyers spent days arguing whether economic mismanagement was Criminal offence. We are yet to discover if our own is not. When dealing with super-elite crooks, justice wavered from one regime to another. What was unlawful under one government suddenly became legal when government changes.

Uganda adopted national motto "FOR GOD AND MY COUNTRY", Ugandans we are living on the mercy of God. Let's pray for justice.

©Kushaba Marvin'walker
Policy and political analyst