The High court in Kampala has awarded Shs 10 million in damages to Malcolm Lukwiya after finding that he was unlawfully detained at Nalufenya police station in Jinja for 16 days without being produced before a court.
In a judgment delivered electronically, justice Bernard Namanya of the Civil Division ruled that Lukwiya’s right to personal liberty was violated when he was held beyond the 48 hours permitted under Article 23 of the Constitution.
However, the court dismissed Lukwiya’s claims of torture and extra-judicial rendition, finding that they had not been sufficiently proved. Lukwiya sued the Attorney General, accusing Ugandan security agencies of unlawfully arresting, detaining, torturing and transferring him between Kenya and Uganda in 2015.
Lukwiya, who was 17 years old at the time, told court that on July 1, 2015, he was arrested at Wangige taxi stage in Nairobi by armed security operatives whom he identified as both Ugandan and Kenyan officers.
He said he was taken to the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit headquarters in Kenya and detained alongside his brother, Emmanuel Oneka, while waiting to meet Sadat Ssenabulya. According to his testimony, he was later transferred to Uganda on July 3, handcuffed, hooded and placed in the boot of a vehicle before being taken to Nalufenya police station.
While there, he said he was held in a dark room, denied access to relatives and interrogated about alleged links to Islamic terrorist groups operating in Somalia, South Sudan and Tanzania. Lukwiya further alleged that he was assaulted during interrogation, including being punched and threatened by security personnel, and falsely accused of murdering Sheikh Hassan Kirya.
According to Lukwiya, a Kenyan police officer, Sgt Ezekiel Luley, covered his head with a black hood and later gave him food which he believed had been drugged, causing him to lose consciousness until he arrived at Nalufenya Police Station in Jinja.
He said he was returned to Kenya on July 19, 2015, without undergoing immigration procedures and was later released after terrorism-related charges against him were dropped.
His father, Webster Lukwiya, testified that he struggled to establish his son’s whereabouts after the arrest and was initially unable to obtain information from security agencies. He told court that after his son’s release, he observed bruises and signs of psychological distress which he believed resulted from his detention.
The Attorney General denied the allegations and argued that Lukwiya’s transfer from Kenya to Uganda did not amount to extra-judicial rendition. The government called Omoding Wilson Otuna, the former officer in charge of Nalufenya police station, who testified that he never received any complaint from Lukwiya alleging torture while in detention.
Otuna also told court that no complaint regarding torture was lodged during his tenure at the facility. He further stated that Kenyan police officers picked up Lukwiya from Nalufenya on July 19, 2015.
He disputed aspects of Lukwiya’s account, including allegations involving officers whom Lukwiya claimed had tortured him. In his judgment, justice Namanya found that the torture allegations were not supported by medical evidence.
“Although the plaintiff, Lukwiya, alleged that he was tortured while in police detention, he did not adduce medical evidence in support of that allegation,” the judge held.
The court also declined to find that Lukwiya had been subjected to extra-judicial rendition, saying the available evidence was insufficient to conclusively establish that he had been unlawfully transferred from Kenya to Uganda outside established legal procedures.
However, the judge found that both Lukwiya’s evidence and the respondent’s testimony confirmed that he was detained at Nalufenya from July 3 to July 19, 2015, without being produced before a court in Uganda.
Justice Namanya observed that the detention far exceeded the constitutional 48-hour limit and that government had offered no legal justification for holding him for such a prolonged period.
“The defendant adduced no evidence to prove such detention or show that the plaintiff was held pursuant to any recognised judicial order or legal process in Uganda,” he ruled.
The court consequently held the Attorney General vicariously liable for the actions of the police officers involved in the unlawful detention and awarded Lukwiya Shs 10 million in compensation. The government was also ordered to pay the costs of the suit to Lukwiya, who was represented by lawyer Stella Nakamya of Rwakafuuzi & Company Advocates.