Uganda President Yoweri Museveni has defended his decision to have cases involving some civilians tried in the court martial.
Traditionally, court martials are a preserve of cases involving military personel.
Museveni says the Court Martial has contributed to the country’s stabilisation through faster trial of criminals and terrorists.
“I have seen the arguments in the papers by some lawyers regarding the correctness of some civilians being tried in the Court Martial. I want to affirm that, that move was correct and useful and it has contributed to the stabilization of Uganda. Why? It is the NRM that in the year 2005 enacted this law through Parliament. This was because of the rampant activities of criminals and terrorists that were using guns to kill people indiscriminately,” Museveni stated on Thursday, December 12, 2024.
“The civilian courts were clogged with the many court cases of the whole country: murders, rape, assaults, robbery, land matters, divorce matters etc., etc. They could, therefore, not handle these gun-wielding criminals quickly. Yet, for stabilization you need speed. Moreover, these individuals, although not soldiers, voluntarily and with evil intentions acquired killing instruments that should be the monopoly of the Armed Forces, governed by the relevant laws.”
He says that Uganda and many parts of Africa are still disturbed by such criminals, the reason that law provided that since “you became a “soldier,” albeit an illegal one, be tried by a court-martial because it is the one that deals with guns”.
“Besides, the court martial system is a subordinate one to the general courts of the whole country. If the Court Martial judges badly, the superior courts will rectify the issue. The advantage is that, in the meantime, these dangerous actors are legally being fed, medically treated by the State and are kept away from harming people,” he adds.
“It is also good for the lawbreakers because that dangerous enterprise of theirs of killing people can lead to their own deaths in the encounters with peace and law-protection agencies. Just by coincidence, last week, I started my tour of Karamoja. While there, the leaders and elders appealed to me to pardon the, apparently, thousands of the Karamojong youth that had been safely put in prison by the active Court Martial courts in the 3rd Division AOR (Area of Responsibility). Kitalya Prison, has, apparently, 2000 inmates and the Karamojong youth account for 900 of that number.”
Court martial vs regular courts
According to the president, when hardcore criminals were presented in regular courts, they were immediately released on bail, consequently returning to crime.
“I now remembered one of the factors that caused the return of peace in Karamoja and the neighbouring areas. It was the efficient and focused work of the military courts that had supplemented the military operations, by legally putting away these confused youths from society for a given period. This was in contrast to the child play of producing these criminals in civilian courts, where they are granted bail or being kept on remand endlessly where they form part of the backlog of the general court system,” he added.
“Here, the focused and you could say dedicated court martials, do the preliminary work, release the obviously innocent and convict the guilty and sentence them. The convicted can appeal. In the meantime, the country is peaceful because the disturbers are State guests at Kitalya and other prisons. Should we have a Referendum on this issue? Why would lawyers not see what the ordinary mwanainchi sees? If we were to have a Referendum in the affected districts neighbouring Karamoja on this issue, I am sure 100% would support the law.”
This comes as the country tries opposition leader Kizza Besigye in the court martial.
