Parliament committee names man who has spent 28 years in Luzira Prison without trial

Kampala, Uganda | THE ULTIMATEPOST| A man identified as Alfred Byamukama has spent 28 years at Luzira prison without appearing before courts for trial. Parliament’s Human Rights Committee has said his long stay on remand has exposed the persistent pre-trial detention crisis blamed for congestion in Uganda’s prisons.

The parliament committee also found that more than a half of the population of prisoners at Luzira are on remand.  Studies have found that while detention pending trial should be the exception rather than the rule, the use of pre-trial detention is highly prevalent in Uganda.

Other studies in 2022 confirmed what the legislators have just discovered following queries after the incarceration of Dr. Kiiza Besigye and his co-accused Obed Lutale.

The study found over half of the prison population was awaiting trial, one of the main contributing factors to a prison occupancy rate of over 300%. Luzira priosn has a 500% congestion.

In May 2021 Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF) commissioned a study to conduct a baseline for the Pre-Trial Detention (PTD) population in selected prisons in Uganda. It found that as at September 2021, Uganda had 65,326 prisoners against a holding capacity of 19,986, marking a 326.8% occupancy rate.. The report stated that the high number of pre-trial detainees is caused, among others, by slow investigations, corruption, and case backlog, ignorance of the law and lack of and/or poor legal representation. “All these factors continue to inhibit effective access to justice in Uganda,” it said.

Visit to Besigye

Byamukama’s plight was brought to the limelight when MPS visited Dr. Kiiza Besigye at Luzira maximum prison over the weekend.

While the Committee has been visiting places of detention and made recommendations, never has the Parliament debated it reports like it did when, Fox Odoi presented it report on Tuesday.

The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Thomas Tayebwa at a certain moment appeared disturbed about the finding that a Ugandan has been incarcerated for that long without trial.

While Some MPS tried to focus on the remand of Dr Kiiza Besigye who has been in detention since November 2024, Thomas Tayebwa did not allow to be diverted from the Bayamukama finding.

“Mine which I’m on is different. I’m on someone who is prison for28 years. You are talking of Besigye when went there yesterday. We are talking of twenty eight years. Okay” said the visibly disturbed Tayebwa.

Buhweju County Member of Parliament, Francis Mwijukye threw the spanner in the wax by telling Parliament that Byamukama has not only spent 28 years on remand but has never appeared before court.

“Because you can be on remand while you are appearing in court but this very one, they are actually two cases. One has been there for 28years, another one has been there for 16 years. And both of them have never appeared in court” he said.

Byamukama was arrested in 1997 for alleged murder in Mbarara. The years he has spent on remand in prison are the same as the lifetime of the Kampala Declaration on Prison Conditions in Africa and Plan of Action.

The Kampala Declaration recommended that prisoners should be kept in remand detention for the shortest possible period, avoiding for example, and continual remands in custody by the court.

Members of Parliament observed that delays on remand have adverse effects on the rights of detainees to a fair and speedy trial.

Wilfred Nuwagaba, the Ndowa East MP suggested that part of the explanation reason why the prisons are congested with the persons on remand is because the offices of Directorate of Public Prostitutions is not facilitated as the judiciary.

“Either with halt the further expansion of the judiciary until we match the human resources of the DPP or do away with the judiciary in some of the areas’ suggested Nuwagba.

Nuwagaba further suggested that the judiciary partly shoulders the blame for the prolonged stay of this prisoners and others that could be languishing in jails without trial.

“There are provisions in prison where you can release people on their cognizance after they have spent the mandatory period without trial. The judiciary is not using that opportunity. We really need to cut down the number of prisoners on demand” he said.

Internal Affairs Shadow Minister, Betty Namboze said people are being held for many years when they have not been proven guilty.

“They are just being held there just for the processes on law. And the probability that they will be declared innocent is high” said the Mukono Municipality MP.

“Some people are being held as political prisoners. People who were arrested, go to jail through the Court Martial until they plead guilty through full figure and Balaam. You cannot be released from prison until you are forced in a forced plea of guilty” she said.

Mbarara City Woman MP, Rita Atukwasa said detention of suspects should provide deterrence, rehabilitation and restitution. She said prisons should not be used to deny Ugandans the right to a fair and speedy trial.

“You are confined in jail for 28 years, others are actually for 15, and others could be for three months which you shouldn’t. Are we addressing the cardinal reasons why people should be jail?” asked Atukwasa.

Parliament directed the Deputy Attorney General, Kafuzi Karugaba Jackson to liaise with the Prison authorities with a view of providing full report about prisoners that have spent too long on remand without trial.

Kafuzi explained that some of those on remand are mentally ill but waiting an order by the Minister of JUstice to have them released. He is expected to provide a full report next week.

According to Penal Reform International, Lengthy delays in trial deny timely justice to the accused as well as his/her victim(s). Families deprived often of the principal breadwinner suffer disproportionately and create even greater social pressure on poorer communities.

It observes that the costs are not only incurred by family members, but also by government who have to house these people.

In addition, PRI notes there is the health hazard posed by prisons harbouring large numbers of people in unhealthy conditions.

It states that Prisons become ‘incubators of disease’ which are transmitted by prison officers and prisoners on release to people outside.