The judiciary has pushed back against a proposal by President Museveni to deny bail to capital offenders and or expedite determination of murder cases, arguing that doing so would be treating a symptom, but not tackling the root cause, of huge case backlog.
Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo said murder, terrorism, aggravated robbery, treason, aggravated defilement, and aggravated rape are all serious offences and their hearing should be prioritized other than anything else.
According to Justice Owiny-Dollo, Museveni has not written to formally notify him that the judiciary should prioritise and expedite the hearing and determination of murder cases, except for excerpts of the conversation he heard on television.
In a televised address last Friday about matters of national importance, President Museveni proposed to the Judiciary to prioritise the hearing of murder cases given resource limitations.
Justice Owiny-Dollo said the only remedy to the ongoing sticky debate about whether or not to grant bail to suspected capital offenders, is to recruit more judges, strengthen the investigations arms of the government such as the police and the Directorate of Public Prosecution in order to ensure speedy trial as mandated by the Constitution.
The President’s bail denial campaign has run into the wall before and again this time, with legal scholars and practitioners as well as the judiciary and some Members of Parliament subscribing to the ruling NRM t party that he chairs, telling him that the question of bail is a settled matter under Uganda’s laws that presume innocence of an accused person until proven guilty.
