By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has said the use of military courts to try civilians has become necessary because the regular courts are clogged with many cases, despite a Constitutional Court ruling against it.
This comes in response to an outcry that followed the arraignment of opposition leader Kizza Besigye before a court martial.
Besigye, 68, has been accused of illegal possession of pistols and attempting to purchase weapons abroad, accusations he denies.
Crimes involving a gun will be dealt with in a military court to ensure the country’s stability, as civilian courts take too long to deal with cases, 80-year-old Museveni said.
“I have seen the arguments in the papers by some lawyers regarding the correctness of some civilians being tried in the Court Martial,” President Museveni said on Thursday in a post on X.
“The civilian courts were clogged with the many court cases of the whole country: murders, rape, assaults, robbery, land matters, divorce matters, etc. They could, therefore, not handle these gun-wielding criminals quickly. Yet, for stabilisation, you need speed,” he added in the post.
Despite the ruling of the Constitutional Court, hundreds of civilians have been tried in Uganda’s military courts.
Museveni said his National Resistance Movement (NRM) party had enacted a law through parliament in 2005 to allow the use of military courts because of the “rampant activities of criminals and terrorists who were using guns to kill people indiscriminately”.
Besigye, who was abducted while visiting Kenya last month and forcibly brought to Uganda, was told on Tuesday that he would be spending Christmas in custody as his trial has been adjourned until January.
He has opposed being tried by a court martial, saying that if there were any charges against him, he should be tried in a civilian court.
Besigye has contested and lost four presidential elections against Museveni, who has ruled for nearly three decades, having come to power in 1986.
A former personal physician to Museveni, Besigye has been less active in the political scene in recent years and did not contest the 2021 presidential election.
Activists and rights groups have criticised the government over the unfair treatment of the opposition leader, arguing that court martials and civilian courts have different processes.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the Ugandan government to end the “weaponisation of military detention”.
