Human rights commission wants Police officer charged with murder

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The Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) has called for the prosecution of a Police officer over murdering a suspect during interrogation. The Commission has also awarded shillings 140 million to three victims of human rights violations in the Lango region.

UHRC, sitting at Lira regional office on February 18, 2025, awarded shillings 65 million to Alango Katorin, 83, who lost her son Francis Adyebo during interrogation by Criminal Investigations Directorate officers from Lira Police Station.

The commission also awarded shillings 60 million to Cissy Akello, who lost her husband due to torture by prison officers, and shillings 15 million to Michael Alake, who was tortured in a joint operation of the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF) and Police to recover guns illegally possessed.

The tribunal, chaired by Chairperson Mariam Wangadya and three members of the commission warned the UPDF and Police against violation of human rights. Other members include Crispin Kaheru, Col. Steven Basaliza and Lamex Omara Apitta.

“Your respective duties under the Constitution are to protect people’s human rights,” Wangadya advised on Tuesday, January 18, 2025.

The tribunal heard that Adyebo was picked from Erute Prison by then Lira District Police commander Raymond Otim on October 26, 2007, where he had been remanded on charges of theft.

It is said that Otim wanted Adyebo for further investigations on allegations of murder. His body was discovered on the same day at Lira Hospital Mortuary with bullet wounds in the forehead and chest.

“Adyebo was a young man aged 29 years, according to the complainant, his mother. He was still a single man and had no children. He never got to know the joy of being a husband and a father. He had many decades of life ahead of him before his life was brutally snatched from him by the respondent’s agents,” Apitta noted.

He added: “The right to life is the most important right without which all other rights and freedoms cannot be enjoyed. Death is final and irreversible. Alago was permanently separated from her son, the breadwinner.”

Charge Police officer with murder

The Commission further found that Police Officer Otim’s actions were criminal, deliberate, arbitrary, sadistic and cruel and thus recommended that the Director CID investigate a case of death in Police custody of Adyebo with the view of charging Otim with murder.

Fisher beaten to death

The tribunal also heard that Patrick Olum, who was arrested on June 7, 2008, for breaching fishing regulations, was beaten to death by warders at Amolatar Government Prison.

The commission noted that it was possible that Olum breached fishing regulations by using the wrong size of the net, but this was not a “crime” worth denying him bail and remanding him, leading to his death.

“Olum’s last hours on earth were utter horror. Like the rest of those prisoners, he was bullied and humiliated. He had worked for at least four uninterrupted hours. He had to seek permission from his tormentors to fix his hoe and resume digging. He was tightly tied up with a rope and tied to a tree and rendered completely defenceless before he was brutally and mercilessly kicked by a Warder until he died,” according to the tribunal.

The tribunal observed that the moment Olum entered Amolatar Government Prison, he ceased to be a human being to the officers. He became simply a slave and a tool with which to get money for the prison officials.

Although prisoners are worked to near death to generate money for those in charge of Amolatar Government Prison Moses Odong, the tribunal states that he [Odong] did not deem it necessary to get Olum’s body treated to delay its decomposition.

The Commission noted that on the night of September 21, 2009, Michael Olake and Morris Abak were arrested during a joint operation by UPDF and Uganda Police to recover guns in the hands of unauthorised people.

However, they were briefly detained at Agwata Police Post, where they were beaten. Although Abak was unable to prove his claims, Olake was able to prove to the soldiers from the Special Investigations Branch (SIB) 4th Infantry Division.

“Their actions constituted torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.  He was severely beaten with sticks all over the body and hit with a gun butt on the head, resulting in an injury. The head is one of the most delicate parts of the body. Severe damage to the head can be fatal. It was mentally exhausting to be required to produce a gun he did not possess,” Kaheru noted.