COMMENT: LCs, know your boundaries
May 30, 2007
THE recent act by LCs in Karamoja of sentencing a suspected murderer to death was beyond their jurisdiction. LCs are not supposed to try capital offences. These include murder, robbery with violence, defilement, rape and others.
THE recent act by LCs in Karamoja of sentencing a suspected murderer to death was beyond their jurisdiction. LCs are not supposed to try capital offences. These include murder, robbery with violence, defilement, rape and others.
LCs are given the mandate to try land cases of a customary nature and minor elopement cases. However, either because they do not know the law or just ignore it, the LCs are engaged in trying and even passing sentences in capital offences.
Throughout the country, there are reports of LCs trying rape or defilement suspects, before sentencing them to buying a goat or local brew to appease the elders. This sentence is below the minimum sentence of seven years for a similar case in a conventional court. The least LCs can do in capital cases, is to write a letter sending the suspect to the Police.
LCs agree that many of them do not know their jurisdiction. They blame this on the absence of relevant acts in the villages. This onus to spread the rules governing local governments does not only fall to the LCs, but also to the central government.
The Government should invest in sensitising LCs about the content of these laws and translating them into languages that they understand. Otherwise, cases of LCs sentencing suspects to death will continue.
LCs are given the mandate to try land cases of a customary nature and minor elopement cases. However, either because they do not know the law or just ignore it, the LCs are engaged in trying and even passing sentences in capital offences.
Throughout the country, there are reports of LCs trying rape or defilement suspects, before sentencing them to buying a goat or local brew to appease the elders. This sentence is below the minimum sentence of seven years for a similar case in a conventional court. The least LCs can do in capital cases, is to write a letter sending the suspect to the Police.
LCs agree that many of them do not know their jurisdiction. They blame this on the absence of relevant acts in the villages. This onus to spread the rules governing local governments does not only fall to the LCs, but also to the central government.
The Government should invest in sensitising LCs about the content of these laws and translating them into languages that they understand. Otherwise, cases of LCs sentencing suspects to death will continue.