Speaker Among to meet Museveni over fresh opposition demands 

Speaker Anita Among has proposed a meeting with President Yoweri Museveni over fresh demands by the opposition legislators regarding the forced disappearance of citizens and human rights violations.

Leader of the opposition in parliament (LoP) Mathias Mpuuga Nsamba presented four fresh demands to the government on Tuesday including the unconditional release of all political prisoners and instituting a commission of inquiry to investigate the disappearance of 18 supporters of the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) party who have been missing since 2021.

Mpuuga also demanded that parliament establishes a select committee to investigate alleged cases of rape, and defilement as well as the transfer of all persons being subjected to unlawful trials before the Court Martial despite such trials being outlawed by the Constitutional court in a 2022 ruling.

“There are dozens of political prisoners languishing in custody on charges that the state has deliberately failed to conclude due to inadequate evidence. On 15th December 2022, Rt Hon. speaker, court ruled that all those persons not subjected to military law currently being tried before any military court are ordered that their files be transferred to the civil court. This directive has however been disregarded to date with political prisoners continuously facing an endless trial. We call on the ministry of Justice why the general court is contemptuous,” said Mpuuga.

The LoP made the demands in a rejoinder to an earlier statement by Gen David Muhoozi, minister of State for Internal Affairs saying that most of the alleged missing persons have never been reported to the police thus complicating investigations.

“The law clearly stipulates that prisoners should spend at least 180 days on remand an equivalent of six months but unfortunately majority of inmates including NUP supporters in the court martial have spent more than that time. I will symbolically cite Abdu Matovu who was abducted from his workplace in December 2020. His mother Nakabuye Haddijah and father Mwalimu Karid Bukenya resident of Sembabule district revealed that their son has been rotting in Kitalya prison since 2020,” added Mpuuga.

Muhoozi cited inconsistencies in the numbers and testimonies in the various claims of reported disappeared persons and presented variously to the Uganda Human Rights Commission, the parliamentary committee on human rights, and the latest statement by the LoP. He explained that the alleged missing persons’ next of kin have declined to give statements to police, making it difficult for the government to conclude investigations. 

In response to the demands by the opposition, deputy attorney general, Jackson Kafuuzi committed to convene a meeting with the top leadership in the Judiciary which will include Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo, and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) among others to consider cases that have been on remand beyond the 48-hour constitutional requirement.

In its annual report released on October 11, 2023, the chairperson of the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC), Mariam Wangadya, revealed that the Commission has resolved to close 18 files of the allegedly missing NUP party supporters after failing to trace them.

Speaker Among proposed to engage the president over the prolonged detention of suspects, and deferred determination on the four opposition demands until after a meeting she scheduled with the chairperson of the Uganda Human Rights Commission next week, Monday.

According to Among, the pending meeting will involve her deputy Thomas Tayebwa and Mpuuga to forge a way of settling the impasse.