Members of Parliament subscribing to the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party have been given two weeks to consult on a presidential proposal to scrap bail for capital offences.
The MPs held a Parliamentary Caucus meeting on Tuesday at the Kololo Independence Grounds to discuss the matter.
The President informed the MPs that their meeting was meant for consultation purposes on granting of bail.
During the meeting attended by close to 300 MPs and chaired by President Yoweri Museveni, it was resolved that they make consultations and return for another meeting that will discuss the way forward.
The Government Chief Whip, Thomas Tayebwa, says the consultation will involve proposals to either amend the law or seek guidance from Chief Justice (CJ) Owiny Dollo among others.
“We have to go back and see what we can do. Do we amend the law, do we take it for constitutional interpretation, do we have more Judicial guidelines over the matter and we are going to engage. In around two weeks time we shall come back for another caucus meeting,” said Tayebwa.
Tayebwa has however faulted the Courts for misinterpreting the Constitution to make people believe that bail is indeed a right.
“The interpretations are different, the constitution is very clear, bail is not a right but applying for bail is a right. So the issue is how the Courts are interpreting this, most of them are taking it that bail is a right, so we have to go back and see how we cure this but as caucus we were very appreciative of the fact that the caucus found it prudent to start consultations with us,” he said.
However, some NRM legislators who attended the meeting are still opposed to the President’s proposal to ban bail for capital crimes.
Amos Okot, Agago North MP said: ‘‘But if you have been suspected, why do you want to deny a suspect constitutional right? One is a suspect until proven guilty,you go to any court in this country and find cases piling there and even our Magistrate or Justices cannot finish it within the given time. There is already [a] huge backlog. You can also go to any prison or police and see how they are overcrowded, and you are saying we should not allow bail.”
David Kabanda, the Kasambya County MP says they will oppose the proposal by the President.
”With the interpretation of the constitution, bail is not just a direct right, we with a law background see that the constitution is clear, bail is not automatic but the application is, so it is to the discretion of the Judicial officers to grant or not, so there is no need of the amendment being proposed, so we are not yet inline to support the scrapping off of bail.”
On Monday, the President clashed with CJ Owiny Dollo on the issue of granting bail to persons accused of capital offences pending determination of their cases.
Owiny-Dollo argued that a judicial officer cannot wake up from the good or wrong side of the bed and decide whether to grant or deny bail to an accused person because it’s a constitutional right.
He said the Judicial officer will grant bail upon considering a number of circumstances, for instance, if one will abscond from trial or not among others.
The Chief Justice added that however, he has heard President Museveni on a number of occasions having a different view on the right to bail, saying that the judicial officers should remember the oath they took to dispense justice without fear or favour and independently.
But Museveni challenged judicial officers to go and read the Constitutional Commission proceedings where he says the majority of the people of Uganda didn’t want bail for capital offences.
Capital offences include: murder, kidnap with intent to murder, terrorism, aggravated robbery, aggravated defilement
