Tabu Butagira & Lulu Jemimah
26 June 2009
Mr Gerald Mukasa (not real name) was 16-years-old when he was arrested and charged with murder in 1998.
After a two-year trial, the High Court in Masaka convicted him of murder, which then had the automatic punishment of death.
However, the presiding judge could not hand down the capital penalty on him because Ugandan laws shield minors from execution.
The Trial on Indictment Act instead provides that such criminal juveniles should be held in safe custody pending an "Order" of the Minister of Justice to determine appropriate penalty.
In such a circumstance, the law obliges the court to transmit records of such ruling against minors so as to inform the minister's decision, which could be a pardon, specified jail term or other appropriate custodial care.
Not only has Mr Mukasa lost his 2001 appeal upon which he was advised to await the minister's order but also persevered eight years of traumatic detention at Upper Luzira Maximum Security Prison without a particular sentence.
Like 16 other criminal juveniles convicted of murder, aggravated robbery and defilement but in similar predicament, Mr Mukasa, now an adult at 27, appears a vulnerable sandwiched between a rock and a hard place as government officials in Kampala dither to decide their fate.
Convicted by courts in different parts of the country and at various times in the past decade, the government opted to haul and incarcerate all the 17 juvenile offenders at Luzira Prison where they have served between 1-10 years on undefined penalty.
LONGING FOR FREEDOM: Inmates relaxing at Luzira Prison. A number of people including minors have been on remand in Luzira for a long time, prompting human rights groups to urge the government to expedite the release. FILE PHOTO
It is illegal under the law to lock under-age offenders together with adult criminals as it is considered that the former can reform better in remand homes.
This manifestation of Uganda's defective justice administration caught international attention on Wednesday after Daily Monitor revealed last week that the State is illegitimately holding some 17 juvenile convicts, five of them lunatics.
The hitherto secretive information came to light after Arua Municipality MP Akbar Godi alluded to it in his jail-time story, exclusively published by this paper last week.
"There is a group of 13 inmates, including Herbert Buliyo, who were taken to Luzira Prison at the age of 16 and have been there for 18 years," Mr Godi said then, adding: "The minister concerned, however, may not be aware of these guys and I wish I had the mandate to lobby for their release!"
Mr Fred Ruhindi, the deputy Attorney General, however, said yesterday he was aware of the case but had not issued the executive order because the Judiciary is yet to forward details of the various court rulings of the related cases for their consideration.
"We have not yet received the court records of the official proceedings in the case of any of these inmates," said Mr Ruhindi, also the state minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs.
"But the [Judiciary's] Chief Registrar, Ms Flavia Anglin, has assured us that she is working to give us the necessary documentation."
He added: "I cannot speculate on their fate because it depends on the report that we will receive from the Judiciary and it is the judges to guide us on what to do with these cases."
Daily Monitor was told that upon reported reminders by Uganda Prison authorities, the Minister for Justice wrote to judicial officials last December, specifically requesting for details of the cases of the juvenile offenders but received no formal reply.
It is understood that Uganda Prisons issued its latest reminder last week. Judiciary's Anglin said she was preoccupied with meetings yesterday and would not explain the inordinate delay in notifying line ministers for action.
The US-based Human Rights Watch wrote to Justice Minister Kiddhu Makubuya on Wednesday, urging him to use his legal powers to expeditiously determine the fate of the juvenile offenders because imprisoning them without proper sentence "is illegal and violates their rights."
"Dumping them in prison without resolution of their cases is a cruel miscarriage of justice," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
Judiciary Spokesman Erias Kisawuzi said he was yet to establish the facts regarding the cases and had by press time not reverted to us.
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