Museveni desperate to dump Ssegirinya/Ssewannyana case.

By Stephen Lwetutte

LONDON-UNITED KINGDOM/NEWSDAY:
Members of Parliament (MP) Ssegirinya and Ssewannyana arguably are just about the best known personalities in custody at the moment in criminal proceedings for murder. They are on remand in Kigo prison and have been for the best part of six months since their arrest in September 2021. The conduct by the state of their cases has attracted national and international concerns in the context of the numerous procedural irregularities as well as allegations of their ill-treatment in custody. It is believed that the duo are in fact political prisoners on trumped-up criminal charges. Of late, there have been increasing calls emanating from influential political and social circles to the effect that the two politicians should be released through political wheeler-dealing. Could this be indicative of the true nature of the charges against them and the desperate regime attempts to save face out of this case and remove one more unnecessary blemish from it image?

Muhammad Ssegirinya (MP for Kampala’s Kawempe North Constituency) and Allan Ssewannyana (MP for Makindye West Constituency, also in Kampala) represent the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) in the National Parliament, but were arrested on 7 September 2021 on charges of murder and terrorism, in the context of the bijambiyaism phenomenon l wrote about in this column on 30 August 2021 in an article entitled “Kondoism” v. “bijambiyaism”: the stark contrasts in reaction by the government of the day! Their detention on remand has been marked by numerous reported procedural and substantive violations, which is hardly surprising to anyone who knows how the criminal justice system in Museveni’s Uganda operates. The MPs are yet to have their day in court to test the evidence the state has assembled against them.

There are abiding concerns that the bijambiyaism (the wave of fatal hackings) which claimed at least 30 victims last summer in a space of weeks could be the handiwork of the regime, orchestrated to terrorise and punish the people in that region of the country (Buddu County of Buganda) for massively voting against the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) in the January 2021 General elections in favour of NUP. It beggars belief, therefore, that the newly elected NUP MPs, moreover from far away Constituencies, would be the ones to wreak terror among its membership and support base.

There are now calls for a political settlement of this matter, the latest coming from, Dr Abed Bwanika, the NUP MP from Kimanya-Kabonera Constituency of Masaka City, the area where the latest bijambiyaism raged. It is unclear whether he made the call in his personal capacity and if so, if such a call was cleared by NUP headquarters. Neither is the position of other relevant actors such as the suspects themselves, NUP and the government on this call known.

I have no doubt in my mind that Hon Bwanika made the call in good faith with a view to securing the freedom of the MPs, possibly on the basis of the same misgivings that the MPs could have been framed for political reasons. If so, this approach, in my view, would actually be detrimental and fraught with danger not just to the image and status of the suspects and compromise them, but also to the general political climate in which the regime could deploy similar methods against others as political blackmail and get away with it. On that basis, l would like to object and oppose Dr Bwanika’s proposal, and suggest that the MPs are given the opportunity to clear their names in open court the way long-term opposition leader Dr Kiiza Besigye did in similar circumstances when he was slapped with trumped-up criminal charges in the 2005 electoral season. This cycle of NRM criminalising its opponents must be stopped, and there is no way you are going to stop it by appearing to appease and rewarding the regime with offers of political dialogue. This regime should not be dignified with such an approach which would have the effect of emboldening it further with that vile modus operandi.

Moreover, where does this proposal leave the victims of bijambiyaism in the unlikely event that the MPs actually facilitated and participated in the hacking spree? Wouldn’t the state be guilty of failing in its cardinal duty of ensuring that justice is not only done, but also seen to be done? The only way to fairly dispose this case of, is to ensure an expeditious process where everyone gets their day in court to be able to see through these charges for what they really are. A process short of that is not only unlawful, but deprives everyone of the right to be heard, and only gets the state off the hook. Given the government’s abysmal record in such cases, it is possible that the government now is seeking to extricate itself out of the case which has already generated adverse publicity as it is and try to limit the damage quietly by deploying unassuming proxies. This must be resisted, the regime must be exposed further.

In any case, gandan law allows the President to pardon convicts and if the government is really interested in a political resolution of this matter, the President could exercise his Prerogative of Mercy at the end of the proceedings if the MPs are convicted or the government could be exposed with an acquittal for their unconscionable conduct for trivialising the misery and sorrow of citizens for selfish political ends. Alternatively, the State could choose to lose interest in the matter, a decision which could come across as unpalatable given the seriousness of the charges brought against the MPs. Whatever the case, justice for all involved must be dispensed judicially and not politically.

The writer is a Multilingual Human Rights Practitioner, formerly at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in London for over 20 years and now Legal and Human Rights Consultant.