Opinions
Uganda’s problem is not lack of laws:
Pastor Solomon Male
My experience in handling, intimidating and / or torture victims / complainants and their good Samaritans; fabricating evidence, deliberately withholding / destroying / or ignoring evidence; poor / deliberate non investigations, or shelving of complaints reported. Victims bleed not because of absence of laws, but due to rotten systems evidenced by cases below.
When Julius Lukyamuzi reported Liberty Worship Center Pr. Grace Kitaka at Old Kampala Police Station for sodomizing him, he was not only frustrated but harassed. When he reported to the Uganda Human Rights Commission, he was duped by his abuser with a promise of being taken abroad for treatment and given a Kyambogo University Identity Card which was used to process his passport but before he could travel, he was arrested, charged with possession of a false identity card, summarily tried, convicted and sentenced to 2 years spent in Luzira and Rwimi Farm Prisons. By the time he was released, his complaint at the Uganda Human Rights Commission had vanished!!!
When he attempted seeking justice again under KR/CID/GEF/36/2006 and CRB 3071/2006 OLD K’la, he was arrested for “Threatening Violence” against his abuser under CPS E/380/2006. To get peace, he broke his story on WBS Tv Focal Point and Sunday Monitor 18-7-2007, all available.
In the Lugazi Police Station sodomy case SD 11/21/04/2013, 27 year old Kasolo Sulaiman, a mechanical engineer applied for a job to Abisha Steel Industry, Lugazi on 19/04/2013. On 20/04/2013, he was invited for an interview which he passed and was recruited.
That same evening, he was invited by the factory Engineer, Shabhaz Muhammad, a Pakistani national into his house to discuss his salary. Therein, Shahbaz gave him bagiya and water which made him unconscious that by the time he regained consciousness before the dawn of 21/04/2013, he had been sodomized and badly injured in the anal-rectal area.
Helped by a Good Samaritan boda-boda cyclist who dropped him by the Lugazi Police Station, he reported Sodomy case SD 11/21/04/13 and Shahbaz Muhammad was arrested.
On 22/4/2013, Shahbaz Muhammad was released and Kasolo Sulaiman was charged of Giving False Information, case 59/22/4/2013, detained for 7 days without any medical treatment even when the anal-rectal injuries sustained during the forced sodomy intercourse continued to deteriorate. As a Police detainee, he was on 28/4/2013 admitted for treatment at Kawolo Hospital.
Though he was being treated for injuries sustained during sodomy, medical surgeons reports indicated he hadn’t been sodomized.
He couldn’t contact his family because the Police officers had confiscated his mobile phone to block his communication.
That evening, a Lugazi based Pr. Njuki saw him chained on the hospital bed, heard his story, helped him communicate to his family and later complained to Lugazi Police Station which eventually released him on Police Bond on April 29th 2013.
After discharge from Kawolo Hospital on 29/4/2013, he was rushed to Bugiri Hospital and admitted on 29/4/2013 and discharged on 9/5/2013.
On 14/5/2013, after the intervention of the Regional Police Commander, Lugazi, Kasolo’s case was revisited and he was referred to the Police Surgeon at Muyenga Dispensary where he was examined by Dr Jackson Kakembo who confirmed that he had been sodomized.
After that confirmation, Shahbaz Muhammad was re-arrested but was released, reliably on the orders of the Director of CIID, and then the charge, Giving False Information, case 59/22/4/2013 pursued against the victim, Kasolo. Kasolo was subsequently summoned to Kibuli CID HQ for as a suspect. Fortunately for him, considering the pathetic condition he was in at the time, the Deputy Director of CIID wisely referred him to Mulago Hospital for further examination to decide which of the Police surgeons were telling the truth.
As it turned out, his condition warranted hospitalization and he was admitted on 27/5/2013 and discharged on 7/6/2013 as evidenced by Mulago Hospital Inpatient discharge form No 548710. He is still on medical treatment.
After the Mulago confirmatory report that he was sodomized, Shahbaz Muhammad was re-arrested and instead of being prosecuted in Lugazi where he committed the offense, he was charged in Mukono Chief Magistrate court.
In the Pr. Robert Kayanja sodomy saga,
To beef up Police tramped up Criminal Trespass charges in Buganda Road Holden at Mwanga 2 Road Court, Criminal Case No 949 of 2009 which arose after one Herbert Tukunde Lupeko approached Pr Michael David Kyazze with a complaint that he had been sodomized by Pr Robert Kayanja but changed statement after being arrested with Pr Kaira who had gone to Nabunnya Road to get promised videos of Pr. Robert Kayanja indulging in sodomy with him (Tumukunde); an investigating officer, Leuben Matsiko who had initially drawn a sketch map putting the scene of crime at the Nabunnya Road junction, drew another putting it at the Rubaga Miracle Center Church gate. Copies of both scenes of crimes are available and in court, Matsiko admitted authoring them.
In Buganda Road Court Criminal case No 1063 of 2010, on 3 Oct 2012, I and my co-accused Pr. Sempa, Pr. Kyazze, Pr. Kaira, Kyomuhendo and Mukalazi (whose complaint of sodomy) against Pr Robert Kayanja was never investigated were convicted and each sentenced to 100 hours of community service and fine of U Shs 1,000,000 after being denied opportunity to defend ourselves just because we dared to receive, counsel and refer to Police young men who approached us with complaints that Pr. Robert Kayanja had sodomized them. Instead of investigating, Police compelled them to change statements and turn against us.
Surprising about the Pr. Robert Kayanja sodomy saga is that it involved endemic kidnaps of his aides and sodomy witnesses witnessed and publicized by the Police spokeswoman Judith Nabakooba and reported in the media. In respect of the kidnaps, on 26th September 2012, I wrote to the Inspector General of Police (copied to H.E The President, Rt. Hon Speaker of Parliament and Chief Justice among others) complaining about Police failure to investigate endemic of kidnaps and asserting, “Police has conspired with Pr. Robert Kayanja to hoodwink the public that he has rivals, and has gone ahead to collude with him to stage the alleged kidnaps for the sake of clearing him of sodomy.’ No response has ever been received and none of the kidnaps referred to has ever been demystified.
In Old Kampala Police Station Sodomy complaint SD 09/02/11/07, when Juvenile Mukomeza complained against his employer, Joseph Basaliza, suspected to be connected to or a member of one of the state security agencies, the Bombo Road Police surgeon, after inquiring of the particulars of the person who had sodomized him produced a report dated 12th November 2007, ruling out sodomy. On the contrary, the Kabalagala based Police surgeon report two weeks later dated 27th November 2007 proved a history of anal rectal intercourse. Report copies are available.
David Arinatwe:
When David Arinaitwe reported sodomy and sexual abuse on him by Pr. Isaac Kyoobe Kiwewesi on case SD 29/28/09/08 at Kabalagala Police Station, in a twist of events; he was accused of car theft, charged and detained at Luzira for a fortnight while his alleged abuser was declared innocent.
In Nabbingo Police Post SD Ref 15/27/07/13,
In this case, an 8 year old boy was sodomized in the Nabbingo Catholic Parish timber plantation and, after reporting the defilement to Police, he was rushed to Rubaga Hospital where examination proved he had been sodomized and was put on PEEP to prevent HIV.
Basing on the victim’s description of the predator corroborated by an overheard conversation, a suspect working with the Parish Priest, who denied the offense and claimed knowledge of the predator was arrested. We were denied access to see him.
It took close to two weeks for the Rubaga Hospital Medical worker who had examined the victim first to fill the PF3 (copy and medical treatment documents available in case of doubts). When the form was done, the Police CID in Nsangi where the case had been transferred said they lacked a suspect identification parade form to carry out the identification. As I tried to get it from the Kampala Metropolitan Police Head-quarters, the Nsangi CID called unhappy that I had gone to the bosses, and told me to take the victim immediately for the suspect parade.
At Nsangi Police Station, the boy failed to identify the suspect three times and the CID told us that there is no way the suspect could be prosecuted on a failed identification and promised to follow his leads and arrest the ‘real’ perpetrator.
The following day, I received a call from a man who identified himself as a Police officer from Nsangi, telling me that the reason the boy could not identify the suspect was that the real suspect was left in the cells during the parade and was released after our departure!!!! It defeated my understanding. To date, Police has never arrested the suspect even where medical evidence proves a crime.
The cases cited indicate not absence of good laws but connivance within the justice system to cover perpetrators and deny victims access to justice and redress.
Implications of the Police Crime reports:
Systemic rottenness is further evidenced by Police crime reports. According to the 2009 Police crime report, of the 7,360 cases registered, only 4,433 suspects were arrested and taken to court, of whom only 467 were convicted, a conviction rate of slightly above 10% of cases prosecuted, just 6% of cases reported.
And for rape; of the 619 cases reported, only 240 suspects were arrested and charged of whom only 12 were convicted, a conviction rate of only 5% of cases prosecuted and just 2% of cases reported.
In subsequent crime reports, Police CIID has carefully avoided giving figures of convictions which in actual sense paint a very bad picture of the Police and entire justice system.
These figures indicate not absence of good laws, but a problem with the systems supposed to enforce the law and ensure that perpetrators are punished and victims access justice and redress.
There is no doubt that such figures highlight why mob-justice is on the increase and must increase till leadership will realize the need to clean up the systems. And no law will cause a miracle where the problem is the systemic.
Finally, I believe that Mob justice is not a deliberate attempt to flout the law, but an inner compulsion due to people’s lack of trust in the judicial and entire law enforcement system based on any previous attempts to get justice in vain.
To be continued.
Pr. Moses Solomon Male: msmalearch@gmail.com: 0772479386 / 0702196511 Leader, National Coalition Against Homosexuality & Sexual Abuses in Uganda
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