President Yoweri Museveni has rebuffed the argument from some lawyers who are challenging the trying of civilians in the Military Court Martial saying the move was taken to stabilize the country.
In a statement released by his press office, Museveni says trying of civilians in the Court Martial is supported by the UPDF Act which was enacted by Parliament in 2005, to deal with the rampant activities of criminals and terrorists that were using guns, instruments that should be the monopoly of the Armed Forces, to kill people indiscriminately.
The civilian courts were clogged with the many court cases; murders, rape, assaults, robbery, land matters, divorce matters failing not handle the gun wielding criminals quickly, Museveni noted.
Besides, the court martial courts’ system is a subordinate one to the general courts of the whole country, in case of error, the superior courts will always stand in to rectify the bad judgment.
He mentioned that in his tour of Karamoja last week, leaders and elders appealed to him to pardon the, apparently, thousands of the Karamojong youth that had been safely put in prison by the active Court Martial courts to stabilize the area.
Kitalya Prison, alone has, apparently, 2000 inmates and the Karamojong youth account for 900 of that number.
He re-emphasized that the court martial should be credited and supported in its work, to undertake preliminary investigations, release the innocent, convict the guilty and sentence them.
By Our Reporter
12 Dec 2024
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