The Constitutional Court has dismissed a case by Retired Justice George Kanyeihamba challenging the move to scrap bail for those suspected of committing capital offenses.
In a televised address, President Museveni expressed his determination to scrap bail for suspected capital offenders and reinstate the mandatory death penalty despite having disagreed on the subject with the Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo.
“I will not accept the issue of bond by police in cases like this. I’m going to discuss with the Attorney General to see how we stop this nonsense. On the issue of bail, we are continuing to discuss this with stakeholders and nobody will stop us,’’ he said.
In October 2021, Kanyeihamba together with four Law Students John Solomon Nabuyanda, Edrine Prince Bbosa, Alex Wavamunno, Williams Ronald Asiimwe, and lawyer Simon Ssenyonga petitioned Court in October 2021 challenging the statements made by Museveni in regards to bail.
In a unanimous judgment, a panel of five judges, Frederick Egonda Ntende, Elizabeth Musoke, Christopher Madrama, Christopher Gashirabake and led by Justice Monica Mugenyi ruled that the petition filed in 2021 was wrongfully filed before court. She further highlighted that Article 137 (3) (a,) which provides for Constitutional interpretations is clearly inapplicable to the present set of facts given that there is no Act of Parliament or any other law or indeed anything down by the authority of any specific legislation that has been challenged.
The court also ruled that the redress by the petitioners may only be sought under Article 137 of the Constitution.
Article 23 (6) of the 1995 Uganda Constitution states that: ‘‘Where a person is arrested in respect of a criminal offence—The person is entitled to apply to the court to be released on bail, and the court may grant that person bail on such conditions as the court considers reasonable
This however isn’t the first petition to challenge the proposed reforms on bail. On October 20th 2021, lawyer Male Mabirizi petitioned the High Court seeking to quash a memo reportedly written by the Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka to change the law saying that a person should be charged in courts within 48 hours to only count 48 hours of working days of courts.
