Commander of Land Forces, Muhoozi Kainerugaba
The Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) has said it has no powers to summon the First Son and Commander of Land Forces, Muhoozi Kainerugaba over accusations that he masterminded the torture of novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, because they don’t have jurisdiction.
The remarks were made by Miriam Wangadya, Chairperson Uganda Human Rights Commission while appearing before Parliament’s Human Rights Committee to respond to concerns raised by about the rampant torture and missing persons attributed to security forces.
“We don’t have jurisdiction in this case, other than looking for Kakwenza when he went missing for some days and visiting him in prison in Kitalya, we can’t summon anyone in this case since he filed his case in the east African Court of Justice. The constitution is very clear, the Commission can’t inquire into any matter in court,” said Wangadya.
The Commission’s response was in relation to a question posed by Moses Okot Bitek (Kioga County) who asked, “Who do you have capacity to investigate and who can you not investigate. Recently the media was awash to the violation of Kakwenza and Masereka but Kakwenza specifically, the name of First son came in, have you ever summoned him before the Commission, do you have a plan to summon him before the Commission?”
However, his question sent murmurs within the Committee prompting Fox Odoi, Chairperson Human Rights Committee to question Okot the motive behind his question.
“Don’t you think that is a very unfair question? Your question presupposes that they have any complaints against the person you have just mentioned, the first son,” asked Odoi.
Okot however the defended this question saying it is intended to ask whether the Commission is a toothless barking dog or if it has the capacity to investigate.
He said, “The Commission has the right to investigate matters directly on their own position of or complaints that have been reported. The victim on all national and international media did emphatically claim that I was beaten by such and such a person, isn’t that grapevine not to be taken?”
In a phone interview with Kakwenza’s lawyer, Eron Kiiza, he described as an excuse the claim by UHRC that it had no jurisdiction to summon Muhoozi saying the only case in Uganda courts of law is the criminal case the State slapped on Kakwenza and the one in East African Court was just recently filed.
He said, “What do they mean out of jurisdiction because since the client started complaining, there was no case against the First Son. They are only stopped from handling matters that are in court. And really from 11th January to 28th February is when Kakwenza filed his suit. Where was UHRC? There was no civil case, the only case was criminal case. So the suggestion from UHRC that there was a case that would stop them is false. Those are just excuses.”
