Musene appalled by number of aggravated defilement cases

Apr 25, 2017

The judge presided over the opening of the special criminal court sessions at Mpigi High Court recently.

 

A total of 60 criminal cases are set to be heard by the special High Court session at Mpigi High Court which is to be presided over by the resident Judge Wilson Masalu Musene.

According to the criminal sessions cause list, aggravated defilement tops the list of criminal court cases to be heard with 32 cases followed by murder with 13 cases, 10 for rape.

Musene presided over the opening of the special criminal court sessions at Mpigi High Court recently.

At the function, he said this was in response to public outcry about the delay in the hearing of criminal cases brought before court.

"The purpose of handling such a big number of cases is in response to public outcry about delay in delivering justice and the congestion in prisons and the case backlog in our courts" he noted.

He said this being ‘kisanja hakuna mchezo' the judiciary put up reforms to match with the government policy of hard work in this new term by dispensing cases that have taken long.

Musene was irked by the big number of cases of aggravated defilement and said that he has observed that such vices are caused by mainly drug abuse by most men who prey young school girls.

"Cases of aggravated defilement according to my observation are caused by mainly drug abuse and drunkenness by men. We all have an obligation to protect our young girls and make sure we keep them in schools up to university" he said.

He appealed to all stake holders to make sure that young girls are protected and not exposed to sex before they finish school.

He warned men to desist from drunkenness since it is also the root cause of increase in cases of murder, rape and defilement in the area.

He revealed that the judiciary has put up reforms in order to reduce on the case backlog before Ugandan courts and these include the small claims procedure which was introduced to find an alternative to dispute resolutions and plea bargaining where the accused admits to have committed the offense and then pleads for a reduced penalty.

This special High Court session is to take one month and a half and a total of 60 criminal cases will be heard and disposed of in only 50 days.

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