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MPs doubt legality of police brutality case

Saturday July 23 2016
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Manhandled: Police have been accused of beating up opposition leader Kizza Besigye’s supporters on the day he was granted bail on July 12. FILE PHOTO | MORGAN MBABAZI

Even as the Uganda Police proceeds to try its officers over allegations of unprofessional conduct, some legislators have cast doubt on the legality of the process. 

Moreso, the legislators are unsure about its ability to correct what they say are major deviations in policing, which, in their estimation, require comprehensive reforms if the Force is to salvage its credibility.

On Wednesday, July 20, four senior police officers were arraigned at a disciplinary hearing convening at the Police headquarters in Naguru.

Five other junior officers who had earlier been accused before the same setup, were enjoined in the case. The officers are accused of beating without provocation members of the public who had come out to show support to leading opposition figure Dr Kizza Besigye after court granted him bail on July 12.

In any case, the hearings — whatever their outcome — are fraught with unintended consequences. For one thing, there is a likelihood they will compromise morale among officers deployed to operations deemed to be politically induced.

As some analysts see it, these officers might hesitate to fully execute their bosses’ orders out of fear that they will have to answer for them individually in the event that the operations take an embarrassing turn for the government.

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Unfortunately, if they chose not to execute their superiors’ orders, they will likely expose themselves to charges of insubordination. 

But even for those who follow through with the now evidently problematic orders, there is bound to be more vigilance from the public aimed at bringing legal suits against such brazen police actions.

“The government itself is on trial as it tries the police officers if at all they are,” said Medard Sseggona, an opposition legislator on the legal and parliamentary affairs committee, on a television talk show on Thursday.

“Impunity cannot last forever. Someone must be taught a lesson and learn at a personal level that when you carry out unlawful orders you will be charged as an accomplice to the crimes committed,” added Mr Sseggona, who is also an attorney.  

The legislators contend that the ongoing hearings against nine junior and senior police officers over accusations that they brutalised opposition supporters is nothing more than a gimmick aimed at showing that the police care about its public its image.

According to the legislators, not only has it shielded the originators of the orders that these officers simply executed, it will do nothing to review what, in their view, is the running ethos that appears to have refocused the Force’s core mission from security to containing a growing and unrelenting opposition against the ruling NRM government.

“Police brutality has not started today. It is a trend,” said Muwanga Kivumbi, the shadow Minister of Internal Affairs, as he tabled a motion in parliament on Thursday, over the matter.

“Some officers in the Force behave like they are above the law. This business of caning people randomly is overboard,” added Wilfred Niwagaba, the shadow attorney-general, while seconding the motion.

According to Mr Niwagaba, the hearings are unlikely to produce a satisfactory outcome. So, he promised to follow up the officers in the general courts of law.

But the Police Force has defended the hearings, saying they are established in law, they are not new and are sufficient enough to ensure justice.

“The Police Act (section 44) establishes the police code of conduct, which brings into existence the police disciplinary court to manage such disciplinary cases. The disciplinary court is a legal entity like any other court,” Polly Namaye, the deputy police spokesperson, told The EastAfrican.

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