Death by hanging: What is the rationale?
IT is about eight years since he last appeared for duty, but this has not cost him his job. Luzira’s hangman still receives a salary from the Government, though he last executed someone close to a 10 years ago.
By Arthur Baguma
IT is about eight years since he last appeared for duty, but this has not cost him his job. Luzira’s hangman still receives a salary from the Government, though he last executed someone close to a 10 years ago.
The work of a hangman is as brief as the title of his job — to kill by hanging. The Government employs a hangman and one assistant as part of the prisons’ staff.
“They are paid as staff. They are part of us,†says an official at Luzira Prisons. For obvious reasons, few people know the hangman. He stays upcountry and only travels when duty calls.
Death by hanging is the official execution method in Uganda — the same manner in which former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was executed.
The execution of Saddam drew sharp criticism from his friends and foes alike. It has generated a worldwide debate as to whether death by hanging is acceptable in this era.
Should Uganda continue to use the rope, when there are other civil forms of carrying out executions?
Prisons’ chief Johnson Byabashaija says they apply what the law mandates. “What we have in our law books is death by hanging. We don’t have any other form of execution,†Byabashaija says.
But what expertise is required of a hangman to be kept on a pay roll even when he is doing no work for years? Not much. It is simply training on the job.
“The current hangman was trained by his predecessor and if he is to go, one of his assistants will take over,†says an official at the prisons.
The debate for and against abolition of the death penalty is likely to ignite a new twist in many countries still applying it. It has a deplorable effect on families, the world over.
Although Uganda has not enforced its death penalty since 28 men were hanged on April 28, 1999, the number of inmates on death row is on the increase.
Over 500 inmates are languishing in Luzira Prison on the death sentence, while the High Court continues to add to this number. A few years ago, the number of inmates on death row was only 300. Some of the inmates have been on death row since 1979.
Pleas by the prisons’ authorities and human rights activists to scrap the death penalty have been futile. “We submitted to the Constitutional Review Commission good reasons why we want the death penalty abolished. But Parliament debated and upheld it,†Byabashaija says.
Opponents of the death penalty advance several reasons, the most pertinent being the fact that if a wrong decision is taken, it is irreversible.
Chances of hanging an innocent person are real, yet such a decision can never be reversed. They also argue that death is the final destination for everyone. Therefore, you cannot call death a punishment.
“Keeping one behind bars, away from the public for the rest of his life is a bigger punishment,†Byabashaija argues. “We are talking about the issue of taking life, it is for God not man,†says Peter Mugizi, a student of Human Rights at Makerere University.
While in most parts of the world, the death penalty has been scrapped, Uganda still has it on its law books. Proponents of the death penalty argue that it acts as a deterrent. But some states in the US and other countries where the death penalty applies, record the highest number of murders.
The Uganda Human Rights Commission continues to advocate the abolition of the death penalty in Uganda and calls upon the state to abolish capital punishment for all crimes.
During hanging, the prisoner is made to hang from a rope tied around the neck and is killed by the force of the rope exerted against the body, as the body falls. This is what happened to Saddam.
Some capital offenders are dying in prison of natural causes, as others wait forever to face the hangman. Human rights activists say such extended waiting is a violation of the right to freedom from cruel and inhuman treatment.
The pain of such long waits is greatly made worse by the deplorable conditions of Luzira death row. Condemned prisoners share cell space originally designed to house only less than half their number.
Article 24 of the Constitution of Uganda prohibits the infliction of “torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.†But capital punishment involves both physical and mental torture.
Every year the President pardons some prisoners as he exercises his prerogative of mercy conferred upon him by the Constitution. Minister of Internal Affairs in the Obote II government, Chris Rwakasisi, currently on death row in Luzira, is one of the prominent politicians on death row.
Sometime back, there was a rumour that through his prerogative of mercy, President Museveni was going to pardon him. As the world moves to ban this primitive way of killing people, what is the way forward for Uganda?
“For us, we shall keep them, as long as the Government still wants them in,†the prisons officials say.
What are capital offences in Uganda?
Uganda’s Penal Code provides for 15 capital offences: Nine separate offences grouped under the collective heading “treason and offences against the state, rape, defilement, murder, aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping.
“Death is a mandatory punishment for six of the treasonous offences and a discretionary sentence for the remaining felonies at the same go.â€
Offences against the state that carry death sentence include:
1 Any person who
(a) levies war against the Republic of Uganda
(b) unlawfully causes or attempts to cause death of the President
(c) contrives any plot, act or matter and expresses or declares such by any utterance or by any covert act in order, by force of arms, to over-turn the Government
(d) aids or abets another person in the commission of the foregoing acts, or conceals any of those acts
2 Any person who forms an intention to effect any of the following: to compel by force or constrain the Government as by law established to change its measures or counsels, or to intimidate or over awe Parliament or
a) to instigate any person to invade the Republic of Uganda with an armed force
3 Any person, who advisedly attempts to effect any of the following purposes
a) to incite any person to commit an act of mutiny or any treacherous or mutinous act
b) to incite any such person to make or endeavour to make a mutinous assembly.
IT is about eight years since he last appeared for duty, but this has not cost him his job. Luzira’s hangman still receives a salary from the Government, though he last executed someone close to a 10 years ago.
The work of a hangman is as brief as the title of his job — to kill by hanging. The Government employs a hangman and one assistant as part of the prisons’ staff.
“They are paid as staff. They are part of us,†says an official at Luzira Prisons. For obvious reasons, few people know the hangman. He stays upcountry and only travels when duty calls.
Death by hanging is the official execution method in Uganda — the same manner in which former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was executed.
The execution of Saddam drew sharp criticism from his friends and foes alike. It has generated a worldwide debate as to whether death by hanging is acceptable in this era.
Should Uganda continue to use the rope, when there are other civil forms of carrying out executions?
Prisons’ chief Johnson Byabashaija says they apply what the law mandates. “What we have in our law books is death by hanging. We don’t have any other form of execution,†Byabashaija says.
But what expertise is required of a hangman to be kept on a pay roll even when he is doing no work for years? Not much. It is simply training on the job.
“The current hangman was trained by his predecessor and if he is to go, one of his assistants will take over,†says an official at the prisons.
The debate for and against abolition of the death penalty is likely to ignite a new twist in many countries still applying it. It has a deplorable effect on families, the world over.
Although Uganda has not enforced its death penalty since 28 men were hanged on April 28, 1999, the number of inmates on death row is on the increase.
Over 500 inmates are languishing in Luzira Prison on the death sentence, while the High Court continues to add to this number. A few years ago, the number of inmates on death row was only 300. Some of the inmates have been on death row since 1979.
Pleas by the prisons’ authorities and human rights activists to scrap the death penalty have been futile. “We submitted to the Constitutional Review Commission good reasons why we want the death penalty abolished. But Parliament debated and upheld it,†Byabashaija says.
Opponents of the death penalty advance several reasons, the most pertinent being the fact that if a wrong decision is taken, it is irreversible.
Chances of hanging an innocent person are real, yet such a decision can never be reversed. They also argue that death is the final destination for everyone. Therefore, you cannot call death a punishment.
“Keeping one behind bars, away from the public for the rest of his life is a bigger punishment,†Byabashaija argues. “We are talking about the issue of taking life, it is for God not man,†says Peter Mugizi, a student of Human Rights at Makerere University.
While in most parts of the world, the death penalty has been scrapped, Uganda still has it on its law books. Proponents of the death penalty argue that it acts as a deterrent. But some states in the US and other countries where the death penalty applies, record the highest number of murders.
The Uganda Human Rights Commission continues to advocate the abolition of the death penalty in Uganda and calls upon the state to abolish capital punishment for all crimes.
During hanging, the prisoner is made to hang from a rope tied around the neck and is killed by the force of the rope exerted against the body, as the body falls. This is what happened to Saddam.
Some capital offenders are dying in prison of natural causes, as others wait forever to face the hangman. Human rights activists say such extended waiting is a violation of the right to freedom from cruel and inhuman treatment.
The pain of such long waits is greatly made worse by the deplorable conditions of Luzira death row. Condemned prisoners share cell space originally designed to house only less than half their number.
Article 24 of the Constitution of Uganda prohibits the infliction of “torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.†But capital punishment involves both physical and mental torture.
Every year the President pardons some prisoners as he exercises his prerogative of mercy conferred upon him by the Constitution. Minister of Internal Affairs in the Obote II government, Chris Rwakasisi, currently on death row in Luzira, is one of the prominent politicians on death row.
Sometime back, there was a rumour that through his prerogative of mercy, President Museveni was going to pardon him. As the world moves to ban this primitive way of killing people, what is the way forward for Uganda?
“For us, we shall keep them, as long as the Government still wants them in,†the prisons officials say.
What are capital offences in Uganda?
Uganda’s Penal Code provides for 15 capital offences: Nine separate offences grouped under the collective heading “treason and offences against the state, rape, defilement, murder, aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping.
“Death is a mandatory punishment for six of the treasonous offences and a discretionary sentence for the remaining felonies at the same go.â€
Offences against the state that carry death sentence include:
1 Any person who
(a) levies war against the Republic of Uganda
(b) unlawfully causes or attempts to cause death of the President
(c) contrives any plot, act or matter and expresses or declares such by any utterance or by any covert act in order, by force of arms, to over-turn the Government
(d) aids or abets another person in the commission of the foregoing acts, or conceals any of those acts
2 Any person who forms an intention to effect any of the following: to compel by force or constrain the Government as by law established to change its measures or counsels, or to intimidate or over awe Parliament or
a) to instigate any person to invade the Republic of Uganda with an armed force
3 Any person, who advisedly attempts to effect any of the following purposes
a) to incite any person to commit an act of mutiny or any treacherous or mutinous act
b) to incite any such person to make or endeavour to make a mutinous assembly.