Unsurprisingly, Members of Parliament of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) have pledged to endorse President Museveni’s plan to have military courts continue prosecuting civilians allegedly found in illegal possession of firearms.
This not-so-surprising verdict was confirmed by Government Chief Whip Mr. Hamson Obua.
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In his address, after the closure of the February 21 State House meeting, Mr. Obua revealed that the proposed amendments to the Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF) Act will be reworked to insert a provision allowing civilians that undergo such trials to appeal the decisions of the military court in ordinary courts.
The MPs agreed that misconduct by serving military personnel be tried in the first instance by the military court martial with the right of appeal through a civilian court.
“Civilians who acquire specified firearms illegally shall be tried by the military court martial in the first instance, with the right to appeal in the civilian court,” Mr. Obua mentioned.
It is said that Article 92 of the Constitution of Uganda prohibits Parliament from passing laws that change a court’s decision, which can be interpreted as saying that Parliament cannot pass laws that go against a decision made by the Judiciary.
Minister for Defense and Veteran Affairs, Mr. Jacob Oboth, skied past, insisting that the NRM legislators’ resolution does not undermine the Supreme Court decision that stopped military courts from trying civilians on grounds that it was unconstitutional.
“Nobody is trying to defeat the decision of the Supreme Court. What the parliamentary caucus and government are doing is to conform. Judges make laws, and when they make laws through advisory means, we have to make laws that conform to what the judges have said, and that is all the caucus has done. What we have proposed is to really conform.”
“Without the Supreme Court, we wouldn’t need this caucus. So this caucus is to really give effect to the Supreme Court ruling,” Mr. Oboth Oboth explained further.
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