Opposition strongman Dr Kizza Besigye says prisoners are living and sleeping in an appalling state in various prisons across the country.
The four time Presidential candidate says the influx of inmates both on remand and conviction has left no ample space for many to rest their heads at the close of a long day. He says in all prisons he has visited, there is inhuman overcrowding in cells.
While addressing a gathering at the Justice Forum party- JEEMA headquarters Mengo on Friday, just days after his release from Luzira Prison. He was launching a campaign under his pressure group dubbed “State of crisis in Uganda”.
Besigye narrated how inmates are forced to sleep on top of each other in jail because many are squeezed into small rooms without proper aeration. He explained that one of the inmates died in an overcrowded ward at Luzira Murchison Bay prison where he was remanded for two weeks.
“There are many serious problems in prison. But one of the worst is inhumane overcrowding of prisoners, in that people are forced to sleep on top of others. While I was at Murchison Bay, one of the prisoners died within the ward. The wards are locked until 6:30- 7am.” He said
Last month, the judiciary, Uganda Prisons Service and Directorate of Public Prosecutions unveiled a new project aimed at decongesting detention facilities.
The ‘Prisons Decongestion and Access to Justice project’, a partnership by Uganda Law Society and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), is enabling faster handling of backlog and increasing awareness to inmates on legal options to access justice. It also seeks to improve the prison conditions of inmates.
According to the Uganda Law Society (ULS) the prison’s population stands at over 68,793, 40 percent of inmates have been on remand for longer than the term they should have served for the offenses.
Besigye was thrown into jail two weeks ago after he rejected 30 Million Shillings cash bail ruling granted to him by the Buganda Road Grade One Magistrate Sienna Owomugisha. He was slapped with charges of inciting violence for protesting high commodity prices in downtown Kampala.
He was arrested from Arua Park where he was addressing crowds and taken to the Central Police Station in Kampala. He was later transferred to Nagalama Police Station where he spent a night before being jailed.
