ACCU: Anti Corruption Coalition Uganda

As anti corruption activists, we were disturbed when the president stated that corruption cases would now be tried by the court martial. His Excellency the   president said this, well knowing that the jurisdiction of the court martial does not extend to corruption cases, and this would mean amending both the Constitution. However, assuming the Constitution was amended and the Court martial given the powers to handle corruption cases, would the vice be eliminated? My guess is as good as yours.

The big fish would continue to swim (as stated by Justice Katutsi in the Bagonza case). The problem is not necessarily with the courts of law that try the suspects. I believe that once the courts receive the files, they are accordingly allocated to the respective judges that will fix them for hearing.  The judges/magistrates do not determine files/cases that are brought before them, they also do not determine the pace at which investigations are done, and they don’t decide which cases/complaints the police will investigate. That is why some of them will come out and show their frustration by alluding to the fact that it’s only the small fish that are being prosecuted if not persecuted at the expense of the big fish!!

Citing lope holes in civilian courts as they waste a lot of time seeking evidence was among the His Excellency’s justification. I believe that the court martial abides by rules of natural justice and that being the case , evidence will still be needed if one is to accorded a fair hearing.  

Rather than have civilians tried in the court martial, government should come out and address challenges that have hampered the performance of civilian courts by increasing manpower to reduce backlog of cases, equipping the police to effectively conduct investigations and ensuring that all cases are investigated uniformly and not selectively.