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Convicted prisoners at Kigo prisons have condemned the appeal court for discriminatory trials that have immensely affected underprivileged convicts.

The prisoners made this claim while presenting their memorandum to the Uganda Human Rights Commission. They expressed concern over the delay in hearing their appeals.

A case in point is Henry Bampalana Magara, a death row inmate of Luzira Prisons who was sentenced to death 17 years back, but is still waiting for the Appeal Court to hear his appeal case, they noted.

“Some of the inmates have completed sentences without their appeals being heard, yet the law provides that if you are not satisfied with the verdict, you ought to appeal within 14 days,” the inmates pointed out in the memorandum.

They cited a case where the court issued a production warrant for one of their colleagues to appear at the Court of Appeal for his appeal to be heard, yet he had already served his fifteen-year- jail sentence over the robbery.

Quoting the former Arua municipality MP, Godi Akbar, whose appeal was heard and disposed of in one year, the convicts perceive that the appeal court only hears and determines cases of high-profile individuals leaving out the underprivileged, they complained.

“Those who opt to appeal sometimes get discouraged by the process being handled by the court. There are delays in cause listing names of those who might have appealed hence infringing on the rights of the appellants especially those at Kigo prisons,” the memorandum read.

This according to the memorandum has led to delay of justice and denial of the accused right to speedy trial. “Yet court’s delay is a ‘miscarriage of justice’ in contravention of Article 126 (2) (b) of the constitution which provides that justice shall not be delayed.”

When asked for the number of convicts still waiting for their appeals to be heard, Frank Baine, the prison’s publicist, could not readily establish statistics regarding convicts waiting for their appeals to be heard but noted that “Uganda’s prisons have a big number of inmates whose cases are pending within the Appeal court.” 

There is only one appeal court located in the city suburbs of Nakasero. The court composed of 15 justices is headed by the Deputy chief justice Richard Buteera.

The inmates appealed to the Government to roll out appeal courts in each district such that the case backlog could be reduced.

According to the 2017 Case Backlog Reduction Committee (CBRC) report more than 155,400 cases were pending at all levels of courts as of January 31, 2017.

The report indicated that criminal cases constitute 44 percent of unresolved cases, civil cases (33 percent), land cases (14 percent), and family cases (three percent) while commercial cases constitute two percent.

Out of these, the Supreme Court has 97 cases, the Court of Appeal has 5,844, the High Court has 35,548 and the magistrates' court has 68,115 cases of which some of the cases are more than ten years old, in the court system.

Asked how many cases the judiciary has managed to hear and dispose of this year, Judiciary spokesperson Jameson Karemani could not readily avail the statistics but noted that they are understaffed.

“The judiciary is overwhelmed by shortage of judicial officers and the judicial workload of which the Supreme court is short by five judges, court of Appeal by eight judges while the High court needs 45 judges,” according to Karemani.

Justices of the Court of Appeal

Justice Richard Buteera 

Justice Kenneth Kakuru

Justice Geoffrey Kiryabwire

Justice Fredrick Martin Stephen Egonda-Ntende 

Lady Justice Elizabeth Musoke

Justice Cheborion Barishaki

Lady Justice Hellen Abulu Obura

Lady Justice Dr. Catherine Bamugemereire

Justice Stephen Musota

Justice Madrama Izama Christopher

Justice Kibeedi Muzamiru Mutangula

Lady Justice Irene Mulyagonja

Lady Justice Monica Kalyegira Mugenyi

Justice Christopher Gashirabake

Lady Justice Eva Luswata