The charges, which the MPs strenuously deny, stem from their alleged participation in the killing of people in the greater Masaka region by panga-wielding gangs in 2021.
They have lost time, property, friends, and family, and their health is failing. It was just about noon on September 7, 2021, when the outspoken MPs, full of life then, were remanded to Kigo Prison. They never saw freedom again.
“I am very happy to see that my son has survived prison. To everyone who stood with us in this trying situation, thank you very much for travelling and standing with us. Thank you very much. I thank the judges, the lawyers,” said Justine Ssanyu Nakajumba, mother of Ssegirinya, soon after Masaka High Court Judge Lawrence Tweyanze released the two MPs on bail on Monday.
Trouble for the legislators started on September 3, 2021, when the Commissioner of Police, Paul Kato Tumuhimbise, on behalf of then Criminal Investigations Director, Grace Akullo, wrote to the Speaker of Parliament summoning the MPs to appear before detective Moses Taremwa at Masaka Police Station on September 6 and record statements in connection with the July and August 2021 Greater Masaka spate of machete killings.
About 26 people died and several others were injured in Lwengo and Masaka districts by panga-wielding thugs. The assailants primarily targeted elderly people living alone in their homes. The police summons came days after Police Spokesperson, Fred Enanga said some suspects arrested in connection with the machete attacks had implicated the two legislators for holding planning meetings for the murders in Ndeeba, a Kampala suburb.
Enanga said the suspects had revealed how the legislators had promised them wealth for executing the machete attacks, which necessitated the police to summon the two to record statements. Both Ssegirinya and Ssewanyana showed up at Masaka central police in the company of their lawyers, including Kampala City Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago and Shamim Malende, where they recorded statements before they were released on police bond and asked to return the following day, September 7, 2021.
When the legislators showed up as directed the following day, they were arraigned before then Chief Magistrate Charles Yeteise (now retired) together with five others and charged with three counts of murder and attempted murder allegedly committed on August 23, 2021, at Ssetaala and Ssenya villages in Kimanya-Kabonera division in Masaka City. Their co-accused are Jackson Kanyike, John Mugerwa, Bull Wamala, Mike Sserwadda, and Jude Muwonge.
The prosecution told the court that the accused persons murdered Francis Kizza, Sulaiman Kakooza, and Tadeo Kiyimba and attempted to murder Ronald Ssebyato of Ssetaala village in Masaka city. Yeteise didn’t allow the MPs to enter a plea, arguing that his court lacks jurisdiction on the matter, and remanded them to Kitalya prison.
He ordered the prison authorities to return the suspects before the court on September 15, 2021, to check on the progress of the investigations into the offenses.
When the suspects returned on Septem- ber 15, 2021, the Director of Public Prosecution amended the charge sheet and slapped them with additional offenses of terrorism, aiding and abetting terrorism. Despite this, the MPs, through their lawyers, applied for bail in the High Court, arguing that they are suffering grave illnesses, including hyper-tension and complications of the kidney and liver, which cannot be effectively managed inside prisons.
The suspects told the court that they were law-abiding citizens with permanent and fixed places of residence and no prior criminal record. Consequently, Lady Justice Victoria Nakintu Katamba granted them cash bail of Shs 20 million each. She also directed them to deposit their passports with the court. However, the legislators were re-arrested in the precincts of Kigo prison on separate occasions.
They challenged their rearrest and sought the enforcement of their human rights and compensation for the gross violations meted out to them, but lost the case to the state.
Subsequently, on September 29, 2021, the state slapped the MPs with another murder charge against one Joseph Bwanika, a resident of Kiseka B Village, Kankamba Parish, and Kiseka Sub County in Lwengo, and arraigned them before Masaka Grade One Magistrate, Grace Wakooli. The MPs made a second attempt to secure bail on the fresh charge.
On October 25, 2021, Masaka High court judge Lawrence Tweyanze declined to release them on the grounds that releasing the duo could jeopardize the ongoing investigations given their influence in the community. Tweyanze, however, issued express instructions to the prison authorities to ensure that the MPs get the required medical services for their respective health conditions.
Until March 28, 2022, the MPs remained on remand as they only reported to the court monthly to get updates on the status of the investigations into their case. They were then arraigned before the Masaka Grade One Magistrate, Christine Nantege.
Nantege informed the duo that the investigations were complete and committed to the International Crimes Division of the High court for trial. Around that time, social media started reporting Ssegirinya’s death moments after he had been hospitalized at Mulago National Referral Hospital.
Ssegirinya’s mother would faint and shed uncontrollable tears, appealing to the President to pardon her son. The MPs later petitioned the Court of Appeal, seeking bail. On June 29, 2022, the appellate court judges, including Cheborion Barishaki, Christopher Izama Madrama, and Eva Luswata, denied them bail, saying they lacked jurisdiction to entertain their application.
Noting that Ssegirinya and Ssewanyana had spent much time on remand without trial, the judges directed that all files involving the legislators be prepared and transferred to the Principal Judge to expedite their trial and enforcement of their human rights. In September 2022, Samuel Muyizzi Mulindwa, one of the legislator’s lawyers, told URN that a copy of the order was extracted and served to the Principal Judge.
Muyizzi stated at the time that they expected the judiciary to assign a new judge to hear the case as soon as the presiding judge was transferred, though in vain. Frustrated, Muyizzi believed that everything happening in the case was predetermined by someone he didn’t mention.
This followed the announcement that Justice Jane Elizabeth Alidviza, the pretrial judge of the international crimes division of the high court, had been transferred. The court promised to inform the lawyers of the next judge who would preside over the case. The MPs, together with their co-accused, were further remanded till September 20, 2022.
It was anticipated that they would have been assigned another judge by this time. The lawyers of the accused, led by Lukwago, applied to court, saying they wanted the two criminal files in the matter consolidated and heard at once.
“If the consolidation is not done, the Honorable Court is bound to give two conflicting decisions in respect of a common theme, set of circumstances, and common questions of law and fact that will prejudice the applicants,” the fresh application read in part.
The move, Lukwago and his team noted, would avoid a multiplicity of proceedings on similar matters in the interest of justice.
“There are other several applications in this case, including an application by the State seeking to protect witnesses during the trial, an application by lawyer Male Mabirizi seeking to halt the proceedings pending determination of his constitutional petition challenging the legality of presenting separate files whose details are almost identical against suspects; and a new bail application filed by the MPs last month. All these await a hearing before a new judge,” the lawyers said.
On September 7, 2022, the leader of opposition in parliament, Mathias Mpuuga, informed the house that the two MPs required special intervention from the house. He said there seemed to be a syndicate working behind the scenes to have them in detention against the Constitution, which is clear about the rights of those in detention.
“These two members will require a special intervention of parliament. It’s a syndicate, in our view, to have them in detention against the provisions of the constitution. Probably our Constitutional order has broken down and people are taking matters into their hands. Probably this House of Parliament will be the last firewall for citizens who have been trampled upon by the State…I don’t want to say that the judiciary has joined in connivance, but we are asking the judiciary to do its work to uphold the rights of citizens without undue interference by the state,” Mpuuga said.
The speaker called for the expeditious trial of the two legislators. “As the head of the institution, all members of parliament here belong to the speaker. My two members of parliament make one year in Prison today [Wednesday]. I request the government to hasten the trial of these members so that they can go back and represent their constituencies. Let’s see how we can have their case concluded,” Among said.
On September 20, 2022, the International Crimes Division of the High court set October 10, 2022, as the hearing date for the bail applications of the two legislators. Judge Alice Komuhangi Khauka stood over the matter for 10 minutes to hear an application seeking to consolidate two murder files against the legislators.
When the duo returned to court on October 10, 2022, their lawyers, led by Caleb Alaka, asked the International Crimes Division of the High court to refer their case file to the Constitutional Court for interpretation of legal questions.
“In the interest of justice, the case file should be referred to the Constitutional court because we are raising points of law that touch on the tenet of a fair hearing,” Alaka said.
This was after Justice Khauka allowed an application in which the prosecution sought to protect 15 witnesses they intend to rely on to prosecute the accused persons in the matter. She said that the protection of witnesses, limiting the number of people able to access their information and keeping a log of persons handling their information wouldn’t cause an injustice to the accused persons.
She added that full disclosure of those witnesses and their identities would be done not later than 15 days before the commencement of the trial, should her court confirm the said charges against the accused persons.
The prosecution, led by Richard Birivumbuka and Joseph Kyomuhendo, argued that the decision on the protection of witnesses did not in any way require a constitutional review. Justice Khauka set October 13, 2022, to rule on the matter. She later declined to approve the application, saying the constitutional court had already ruled on the same subject. She also said the two charge sheets could not be joined.
On November 7, 2022, Justice Khauka rejected the application by the duo to order a judge sitting at Masaka High court to hear their bail application. On December 5, the lawyers of the duo, led by Samuel Muyizzi, said they could not access their clients following a decision to stop visitation in prisons to avoid the spread of the Ebola virus. In line with the request, Justice Khauka asked prisons to let the accused sign the said documents while on the premises of the court.
Speaking during the opening of the law year on February 3, 2023, at the Mestil Hotel in Kampala, Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo warned representatives of the state in the Segirinya and Sewanyana case to stop “playing games” or else the case would be dismissed.
He said, “This year the trial of MPs Allan Ssewanyana, and Muhammad Ssegirinya will begin, and there will be no games. I will ask the trial judge not to entertain any nonsense during the trial. If the state is not ready, we shall dismiss the case. You (the state) are the one who brought the accused persons to court, you brought allegations against them, the state has the capacity to bring all witnesses.”
The duo returned to court on February 13, 2023, for the hearing of the bail application following the withdrawal of affidavits of some witnesses in the cases of the embattled legislators.
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