Dismiss convicted police boss, journalists demand

Mar 16, 2017

This call comes after Buganda Road Grade One Magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu last week found Mwesigye guilty of assaulting Andrew Lwanga, a journalist in January 2015, causing him serious bodily harm.

Pic: Former Old Kampala DPC Joram Mwesigye in the dock/File photo

Activist journalists under their umbrella body Human Rights Network for Journalists (HRNJ) have called for the dismissal of former Old Kampala District Police Commander (DPC) Joram Mwesigye from the Uganda Police Force.

This call comes after Buganda Road Grade One Magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu last week conicted Mwesigye for assaulting Andrew Lwanga, a journalist in January 2015, causing him serious bodily harm.

The magistrate ordered Mwesigye to compensate Lwanga with sh5m in addition to paying a court fine of sh1m within 30 days or risk serving a one year jail term.

"We shall ensure that Joram is summarily dismissed from the Uganda Police Force as per the Uganda Police Act. He is a convict and not a suspect anymore, and therefore a disgrace to the Public service in general and the Uganda Police Force in particular," said Robert Ssempala, the HRNJ Country Coordinator. The journalists believe that this would act as a deterrent to the would-be perpetrators.

Ssempala made the remarks during a press briefing by HRNJ in Kampala on.

According to Section 47 (1) of the Uganda Police Act, the police authority has the powers to dismiss a police officer who has been prosecuted and convicted of a criminal offence, which Mwesigye is liable to.

However, efforts to reach the police spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi for a comment were futile.

The journalists also expressed dissatisfaction towards the verdict made by the Magistrate, Gladys Kamasanyu, stating that it was rather very lenient.

They said that such a sentence threatens the freedom of expression and freedom of the press which will make the working environment for the media degenerate to the worst and as well promote impunity against journalists in their line of duty.

"It's not punitive enough, to believe that the courts should do better, to protect the media from such gruesome attacks and this lenient sentence in our view is one.

The presiding magistrate herself noted, that there is an escalation on the attacks against journalists, and in virtue of the statement, we expected her to act in proportion to her statement but she acted contrary," Ssempala asserted.

"Owing to what transpired that day in court as HRNJ- Uganda, we have since decided to assist Lwanga and also work with the office of the DPP to appeal against the sentence in the high court.

The case in which Joram was convicted attracts a sentence of 5 years and we are all aware that he was only sentenced to one year if he failed to pay 1m. Joram was not imprisoned for even a single day,"Ssempala added.

Lwanga who appeared immediately after the presser also expressed discontent in the ruling stating that it was very unfair on his side, considering what he has been going through since the dreadful incident.

"I think the verdict on Joram was a bit too lenient compared to the one they gave to the officers that beat up Besigye supporters last year.

Lwanga said that he is still limited to certain activities despite the improvement. He cannot sit for more than 30 minutes, thus unable work.

"Many people have talked of money, police claims they gave me sh7m, but I have never received that money. The President gave me some money which I topped up to get treatment in South Africa, I received sh10m," Lwanga said.

In an interview with New Vision, Jane Kajuga the ‎Principal State Attorney at the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) said that the directorate will first get the record of proceeding from court and make an analysis of the case.


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