Former Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki has responded to accusations that his Constitutional Review Commission ignored views that recommended bail not be granted to suspects facing certain offences.
This comes after President Museveni last week shifted the blame to the Constituent Assembly (CA) that debated our report for two full years and came to that conclusion on bail.
In an interview yesterday, Justice Odoki said the commission only made recommendations to the CA whose members were elected by the people to represent them.
The former chief justice also said the representatives should have asked the public whether the stand on bail was right before adopting it in the 1995 Constitution.
Last week President Museveni singled him out for the current state of bail terms.
Museveni added that he checked the minutes of the Constitutional Review Commission and discovered that people did not want bail for certain offences but when his lordship Odoki wrote his final report, they brought in the discretion to the Judiciary to give bail or not even in capital offences.
Justice Odoki, however, said the recommendations that were presented to the CA were not personal and promised that the matter would be resolved amicably.
In 1989, Justice Odoki was appointed chairperson of the Constitutional Review Commission which was mandated to collect views of the public and prepare a draft constitution for Uganda.
The draft was debated and adopted by an elected CA in 1995.
