Community service order in action

By Nicholas Kajoba Mariam Zalwango will not be imprisoned for her petty offence, but serve her sentence under the community service programme. Zalwango was charged with assault and sentenced to 100 hours of community service at Kateeta primary school, where she will cook food for two hours per day under the community service programme. Another offender Betty Nabiwemba charged with assault was sentenced to 80 hours to clean a feeder road at Nakasaka Village, four hours per day and Ben Mugalu charged with theft was sentenced to 100 hours to clean Katosi landing site, Mukono for two hours daily. The three appeared before Mukono chief magistrate Elizabeth Alividza and pleaded guilty of the offences. The three were the first to be tried under the community service Order. Under the normal law the two offences of assault and theft carries maximum period of not less than one year in prison under hard labour. Under the community service act which was passed by the parliament on February 24, 2000, a person convicted of minor offence, court may instead of sentencing that person to prison, reverse it to community service order. Before passing the community service order, the court shall explain to the offender in a language she or he understands the effect of the order. “According to the community service act, community service order shall be performed for period of not more than six months and the offender shall not work for more than eight hours a day,” Alividza said. The eighteen-month pilot programme has been introduced in the districts of Mukono, Masaka, Mpigi and Masindi and is funded by donors and government of Uganda. Uganda has over 10,000 prisoners and government spends sh3000 on each inmate on daily basis with an estimate total sh30m day. Betty Nabiwemba who had stayed in prison with her one-year-old daughter for one month and was serving a one-year sentence for assault was all-full of joy, when she was chosen to be among the petty offenders to do community work. ‘’I’m excited because I was supposed to stay in prison doing hard labour with my one-year-old daughter for one year because I fought with my neighbour,” she said. Justice Anne Magezi, national community service committee chairperson, said at the launching of the programme in Mukono, that community service will be run under district secretariats in the pilot districts and they will manage the programme, keep records and data on the service. “A national secretariat has been established to coordinate and give effect to the policies of the national committee. We are now in the process of setting up district secretariats in the pilot districts,’’ she said. She said the programme under the ministry of internal affairs has 12 committee members representing various departments and institutions like judiciary, internal affairs, police, prison service, local government ministry, gender and social development ministry, law reform commission, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) and two representatives of general public. Projects on which offenders will work will be identified in advance from schools, hospitals, health units, road works and other public institutions within the community. Magezi said that before one is sentenced to community service, a social worker will first present to court a report on the character of the offender. The report will also contain information on the physical and mental status of the offender and skills the offender possesses. ends