President Yoweri Museveni has banned torture in Uganda as a means of extracting information from detained criminal suspects, just days after Kenya’s Orange Democratic Movement called out the nation’s ruling party over record on human rights violation and democracy in the East African country.
In a televised address on Saturday, Museveni fingered his country’s lazy and undisciplined security operatives for using torture as one of the ways of extorting confessions from suspects in their custody.
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‘‘Evidence through torture is not reliable. Torture is unnecessary and wrong. It must not be used again if at all it was being used like I see some groups claim in the media. Someone may admit guilt yet he is innocent and the real criminal escapes. Confessions by criminals are not necessary if investigators do their work well. You can use facts and circumstantial evidence,” the Ugandan leader said.
While defending his government’s actions in the past, of using force and sometimes resorting to abuse of human rights, like 54 people killed in November 2020 by police and military, the 76-year-old Ugandan leader said the brutalised individuals were promoting illegitimate interests.
‘”The only ones that faced our fire were those defending or promoting illegitimate interests including dictators denying people free elections like the NUP party that was using terrorism and intimidation. Killing is only in battle or by order of court. No killing prisoners. No assassinations as they are used by bankrupt people not sure of their political positions.”
“It is a strategic mistake to shoot someone that has already been arrested or one that has surrendered. If anybody makes a mistake, they will be arrested. This is an army that must use revolutionary beliefs,” he said.
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Two weeks ago, ODM Chairman John Mbadi and Director of Elections Junet Mohamed, the MPs called DP William Ruto to come clean on his aborted Uganda trip, after one of his allies disclosed the DP planned to hire NRM strategists to help in running his new United Democratic Alliance (UDA).
“The NRM record on human rights is not worth borrowing from. The NRM record on democracy is not worth borrowing… even worse, the NRM is a party of lifetime presidency. NRM is a party that has kept someone in power for 30 years,” Minority Leader Junet Mohammed said on July 5th at Parliament buildings.
