Lawmakers and human rights defenders have condemned ministers for backing what they have called “draconian laws” that seek to curtail freedoms and take away the discretion of judicial officers to grant or deny bail.
Those against the Executive decision to tinker with bail for capital offenders have warned that when the dust finally settles, the architects of the draconian laws will be caught by the same laws but it will be too late to make amends.
On Friday, the Cabinet endorsed criminal justice reforms, among them amendments to the 1995 Constitution and the Police Act, to deny suspects on capital offences bail or police bond.
Cabinet sources singled out suspects on murder, rape, Robbery and treason charges, among others, as the main target for the proposed reforms.
Meanwhile, Eron Kizza, a human rights lawyer, says that as for scrapping bail, personal liberty is inherent, it’s God-given and no man-made laws can deal away with it.
Wilfred Niwagaba, Shadow Attorney General, says Uganda’s history is rich with examples of laws made with a political lense targeting regime critics and at the end of the day the same draconian laws affecting the movers first.
Mathias Mpuuga, Leader of the Opposition in Parliament says Museveni and his cowardly Cabinet are free to dream power until eternity adding that that’s part of what nations harvest when citizens allow a cabal to seize the national conscience.
