Luzira Prison inmates will in future enjoy their conjugal rights if the facility is relocated by investors who want to redevelop the land.
“The new structures will have rooms where the prisoners will have sexual intercourse with their spouses because it is their right as enshrined in international laws,” the Prisons Under-Secretary, Simon Kimono, told journalists at Parliament yesterday.
He added that the prisoners would be allowed to meet their spouses for 20 minutes.
Earlier, Kimono told the public accounts committee that he had advised the investors to construct a new prison with a capacity of over 3,000 inmates.
Luzira, which occupies 460 acres of land, accommodates about 2,000 inmates.
“We must get value for value before anybody plans to relocate us. We need structures not cash. We want a new prison that is in conformity with the current standard and the structures must be built before we are relocated,” Kimono told the committee chaired by Nandala Mafabi (FDC).
He added that the prison authorities were being pressurised by investors from the UK, the USA and Saudi Arabia to relocate.
“Everyday, investors come to us asking for the land but we have been referring them to the Uganda Investment Authority and the Uganda Lands Commission,” he said.
Reagan Okumu (FDC) advised the Prisons Under-Secretary: “You should fight for your land. Don’t just relocate. Look at what happened to Shimon Primary School. Do not leave the current premises before the structures are in place.”
