By Mulengera Reporters
Uganda’s Attorney General Kiwanuka Kiryowa says that, as government, they now have nothing to do but to comply with the Supreme Court judgment that nullified and invalidated all civilian trials in military courts and tribunals.
Speaking on CBS on Saturday morning, Kiryowa said that as the officer concerned, he will be sitting with his teams at the AG chambers to comprehensively study the Supreme Court judgment and map out stuff that will guide them to advise and guide the relevant agencies of government on which steps and adjustments to make.
Naturally, these agencies of government will include the UPDF leadership where the court martial falls and the prisons service which keeps custody of all civilians who have been undergoing prosecution in the army courts and tribunals. The Parliament of Uganda too will have to be engaged by the AG to effect the urgent reforms onto the UPDF Act as was guided by the Supreme Court.
On his part Frank Baine, who speaks for Uganda Prisons, at whose Luzira facility Dr. Kizza Besigye has been locked up since November, said they will only release the retired Colonel once the military court which gave him to them for custody orders them to. The Internal Affairs Minister Gen Kahinda Otafiire, who supervises Uganda Prisons for which Baine speaks, says they will have no option as government but to comply with the Supreme Court decision.
Otafiire adds that the Supreme Court has done its work as mandated under the Constitution and the rest is now the business of the Executive to operationalise the decision and for Parliament to align the UPDF Act to comply with what the Supreme Court directed.
Defense lawyer Erias Lukwago says that on Monday they are going to write to Prisons boss Dr. Johnson Byabashaija, sharing with him the Supreme Court decision according to which the veteran opposition leader is supposed to have been released immediately.
He says that should Besigye and Hajji Obed Lutale still be in Luzira on Monday, he will be leading a big team of lawyers to storm Byabashaija’s office to demand for an explanation while serving him with a copy.
The Friday landmark ruling has seen Ugandans on social media, and to an extent Kenyans, unanimously commend the Ugandan Supreme Court for the judicial activism approach it adopted while shielding the people of Uganda against future persecution by their government using the military justice system.
This being the Supreme Court, there is nothing else the GoU can do apart from complying with the decision because, legally, there is no where else they can appeal the same being the apex Court of Uganda. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
