By John V Sserwaniko
If you thought President Museveni’s public utterances made Thursday during budget reading, regarding bail, only have political implications, better think again. Big name city lawyer Nicholas Opio says the Museveni comments against police and courts releasing criminal suspects on bond and bail will instantly hurt the economy more than even the politics of the day. Opio says that the presumption of innocence and right to fair hearing are the foundation of the rule of law and once their enjoyment is threatened and constrained in a manner the President recommended during his speech at budget reading, “then no serious investor or tourist will want to come to such a country where he or she isn’t guaranteed of being subjected to fair trial including being released on bail or police bond.” The young talkative lawyer added that: “Uganda’s rule of law index [which greatly influences investment & tourist decisions] is already very poor and I’m afraid Mr. Museveni’s act to publicly intimidate police and the Chief Justice will only make it worse.” Opio said that in his estimation, President Museveni is now a leader who is overwhelmed by his government’s failures especially in the area of security “and it’s now understandable why the President is desperate and has become a very dangerous man.” Opio said because he rightly knows the consequences of amending the constitution to diminish the enjoyment of non-derogable rights like right to bail and habeas corpus, President Museveni can’t go beyond merely complaining because scrapping those non-derogable rights will instantly make Uganda more unattractive to investors and tourists whose dollars government badly needs to keep the NRM’s patronage-based political system going. Opio said the moment suspects cease to be entitled to bail and generally fair trial-and be presumed innocent until proved guilty-then “you can as well just jail people without first taking them to court because there will be no trial to talk about in absence of the presumption of innocence.” Opio explained that blanket denial of bail to all manner of suspects would amount to one being punished before their guilt has been proved.
Opio also challenged Museveni to own up rather than blaming rising violent crime and murders on Justice Law & Order institutions namely police and the Judiciary that the big man specifically referred to in his budget speech. “The crime intelligence infrastructure in this country collapsed long time ago and all this happened when Mr. Museveni was the president. What would have been ISO and CMI intelligence gathering mandate was taken away from ISO to Police because his loyalist Gen Kayihura headed that institution. The special branch of police was disbanded and CID was expanded to CIID. Unfortunately, they concentrated on political and overlooked crime intelligence. I remember Gen James Mugira was very uncomfortable about this…The police of course became corrupt as well and that is how we got to where we are right now. Instead of owning up, the President, who has clearly become a very dangerous man, has resorted to blaming everybody else except himself,” Opio says in an interview with this news website. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755.
