Africa-Press – Uganda. The gaps on the Firearms Act of 1970 has been blamed for the misuse of firearms in the country.
Mr Richard Mugisha, the chairperson of Uganda Action Network on Small Arms, a non-governmental organisation, said the law in its form does not meet global standards.
Mr Mugisha made the remarks during a breakfast meeting organised by officials from the African Union (AU) amnesty national campaign project to discuss the voluntary surrender of illegal firearms in Kampala yesterday.
He said the law insisted on weak penalties for offenders of small firearms, which motivates criminality.
“The offender of a small firearm pays Shs1,000, which is too weak. The government uses the UPDF Act as an alternative because the old law was not amended and it remained weak,” he said.
He added that as a civil society, they are advocating for the amendment of the law to suit international standards and address human rights.
The event was also attended by officials from Uganda Police Force, Uganda People’s Defence Forces, and other civil society organisations.
Ms Florence Kirabira, a senior official at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, said the government is implementing a joint support AU-UN amnesty project on voluntary surrender of illegal firearms.
“The amnesty project encourages civilians to hand in illegally possessed firearms without fear of prosecution or any other kind of victimisation,” Ms Kirabira said.
Locally-made guns
Capt Herbert Arinaitwe, who represented the UPDF spokesperson, said although the government and other stakeholders are advocating for voluntary surrender of firearms, some guns in civilian hands are locally-made.
“In the recent disarmament in Karamoja Sub-region, the joint security taskforce recovered 150 guns and 1,500 ammunitions, which were locally-made. Majority of the guns were also not labelled,” he said.
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