By Mmeeme Leticia Luwenze,
KAMPALA:
Whereas president Museveni insists that suspects of capital offences like murder, rape, terrorism and treason shouldn’t be allowed right to court bail, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has asked him to drop the plans to amend the same.
Museveni is in high gears proposing to amend Article 28 (3)a of the 1995 constitution that seeks to deny suspects of capital offences right to apply for court bail as granted by the constitution.
FDC deputy spokesperson John Kikonyogo, says reminded that the right to apply for bail is inherent to all Ugandans, and therefore the president has no absolute powers to abolish noting that it’s only granted on the desecration of the Court.
“Bail may be denied or restricted, the duty to deny bail lies on the state/ prosecution which may present compelling reasons to move Court to deny bail. In other words, every bail application is considered on its own peculiar merit and circumstances,” Kikonyogo said.
Kikonyogo who recalled that the move by president Museveni to amend the clause in the constitution that allows all suspects to apply for bail is not new in the ears of Ugandans, said that Uganda being a member of the commonwealth, falls under the Common Law system which is based on the presumption that someone is innocent until proven guilty.
In Uganda, the presumption of innocence is created under Article 28 (3)a of the 1995 constitution and it is entrenched under Article 44(c) of the same Constitution which makes the whole Article 28 non-derogable.
Under Article 260 of the Constitution, the presumption of innocence as created by Article 28 (3)a of the 1995Constitution entrenched by article 44c can only be repealed or amended by a decision of the people of Uganda through a referendum. Therefore the presumption of innocence is a back born of Uganda’s criminal justice system.
The law requires that whoever grants bail it must be through discretional power, such a discretion must be exercised, judiciously (meaning balanced mind with a high degree of ethics and professional competence.
According to the FDC, in 2015, Museveni attempted to abolish bail when he set up a 5 member committee to examine his idea of amending the Constitution to deny bail to suspects of economic sabotage, murder, rioters, and hostile media among others
But this later failed after the move as it met strong resentments from various government stakeholders including members of his NRM party.
“As FDC, we want to tell Ugandans that this bail discussion is not new. Museveni has tried it many times before, the latest being in 2011. We call upon Ugandans not to take this discussion literally, his intention is to engage Ugandans into a constant discussion on merits and demerits of bail,” FDC warned.
In his last nation address on Friday, president Museveni said he would involve all stakeholders to see his plan through. However, legal experts such as the Chief Justice and activists have already expressed disagreements with the president’s proposal.
