By Leonard Kamugisha Akida,
NATIONAL
The National Chairman of the People’s Front for Transition (PFT) Rtd Col Dr. Kizza Besigye has asked parliament to establish an Inspectorate of Prisons with the mandate to supervise, monitor, regulate and report to the house on the state of prisons in Uganda.
“It is important for our legal people to consider how to advance it and have a prisons inspection commission, some independent body like the Inspectorate of Government that regularly reports to parliament on the condition of all formal detention centres,” Besigye said
Besigye made the call on Friday while addressing the media on what he terms as ”the state of the crisis in uganda today” at JEEMA offices in Mengo.
During the address, Besigye stated that during his term of jail at Luzira he observed numerous challenges including overcrowding in prisons, in sorry state cells and poor welfare of prisoners which requires urgent interventions by parliament.
He says that at Luzira inmates sleep on top of each other due to overcrowding.
He blamed the challenge on continued detention of suspects without trials by keeping them on remands. Besigye said that one night inside Luzira a prisoner he did not disclose died in prison ward due to overcrowding in the cells.
“Most of the political prisoners who were arrested in 2020 election campaigns are rotting in prison and are managed by the court martial. The court martial is being used a s a vehicle to incarcerate ordinary Ugandans politically opposed to the regime,” Besigye said.
When I was at Luzira, he added; “I found one inmate in Murchison Bay called Muhaidine Kakooza alias Ssanya, he has been there since 2020, charged on the same file with 30 others in the Court Martial. This is a terrible thing that the citizens must be aware of and challenge so that we put an end between. Everyone is potential to suffering this kind of injustice.”
In addition, Besigye said that inmates on remand are used in forced labour something that violates their rights.
“A remand prisoner is an innocent person under the law, they must be presumed innocent. They are only being held so that they can be availed to court whenever they are needed for trial. In otherwords, they should live as free as normal a life as any other cirizen,” Besigye urged
He demands that remands should exercise their rights as ordinary Ugandans rather than being mistreated as criminals.
“The duty of the prison is only to ensure that they come to court. They should even leave mobile phones with them and any other thing that they need. There is no any reason they shouldn’t. They are ordinary people whom somebody has simply alleged something. Even putting on prison should be optional for remands”, he explained
At the end of the last month, a prison truck overturned and killed five prisoners who were being transferred to do casual labour in Luweero. This according to Besigye is utterlycriminal and warns that it should be stopped.
He suggests that the judiciary intervenes to ensure that prisoners on remand are tried and or released.
Furthermore, the four times presidential candidate has hailed UPS for treating him well and professionally at all times he has been under detentions stating that he has not been severely tortured or subjected to any form of mistreatment. He was however quick to accuse officials at Luzira prison of isolating him from interacting with other inmates the previous time he was detained at murchison bay prison Luzira.
