Gen Kayihura faults Judiciary, Prisons over rising crime rate

A prisoner bering manhandled by prison warders. Gen Kayihura accuses the prison authority of abetting crime in the country.

KAMPALA

The Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, has blamed the judiciary and the prisons service for the increasing crime in the country. According to the IGP, most criminals arrested in relation to violent crimes like robbery and murder are individuals with past criminal records while others are former convicts.

According to Gen Kayihura, the justice system in Uganda is instead promoting injustice with a number of criminals getting released by the courts. “Criminal justice is based on the principle that you would rather let nine criminals go free than inconvenience one innocent person. The criminals have money and get very good lawyers. At the end of the day, a judge has to only have a simple doubt to release the suspect,” Gen Kayihura said.

According to police records, many criminals, who are sent to prisons which are supposedly rehabilitation and reformatory centres, complete their sentences and get involved in more violent crimes. They never get reformed. “A criminal convicted for hitting people with “akatayimbwa” (an iron bar) will be released and will most likely be involved in crimes using guns, yet no one seems to ask why,” Gen Kayihura charged.

Defended
However, the Uganda Prisons spokesperson, Mr Frank Mbaine, said rehabilitation in prison is only done for criminals who are already convicted, but not remand suspects who are acquitted or discharged by courts.

“It would be true that we do not do all the required rehabilitation because of congestion but again it is wrong that we don’t rehabilitate the criminals. We only rehabilitate those convicted and yet a half of the inmates go out before they are convicted. How do you rehabilitate a suspect?” Mr Mbaine asked.

In a report on the recent city violent crimes, it was established that a suspect identified as Soby had been repeatedly arrested and charged in court over similar crimes. Police records indicate that Kampala Metropolitan area alone had registered about 60 murders since June this year.

Police records show that another 10 people were killed in mob action and seven in domestic-related violence during the same period. The rest were hit by iron bar criminals and others are strangled.