Africa-Press – Uganda. The Constitution provides that a person arrested or detained for the purpose of bringing him or her before a court in execution of an order of court; or upon reasonable suspicion of his or her having committed or being about to commit a criminal offence, shall, if not earlier released, be brought to court as soon as possible but in any case not later than 48 hours from the time of arrest.
The report of findings of a study in which 613 suspects were interviewed in 2021 over a nine months period revealed that the Uganda Police Force and the Uganda Prisons’ Department have very little respect for the 48 hour rule.
The Advocates Sans Frontiers (ASF) report comes amidst concerns raised after a rise in the number of rights violations including abductions, detention without trial, violations of the 48 hour rule and extra judicial killings, some of which have been the subjects of investigations by the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC).
All Ugandans should take keen interest in the Advocates Sans Frontiers’ (ASF) report. We have a duty to defend the constitution and our rights under it.
The Police has been proposing that the 48 hour rule be scrapped. Uganda Police bosses told Parliament in May 2018 that the law “is not realistic in all cases” and presents lots of challenges.
The Police obviously does not have adequate manpower and resources to carry out swift and comprehensive investigations.
A retired former Deputy Inspector General of Police, Mr Julius Odwee, recently called on the Force to revisit its training regime and return to the basics saying that whereas the force has the hardware, it does not have the software required to do police work, especially in the areas of interpretation of intelligence information and investigations.
This perhaps explains why many an arrest is done before investigations are complete.
It also explains why in the rush to beat the 48 hour law, suspects are arraigned before court only for the courts to hear that investigations are ongoing!
The biggest question is why then arrest a suspect when investigations are incomplete or when there are no chances that they will be completed in time to beat the 48 hour deadline? Let the Force not put the cart before the donkey.
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