Spokesperson of Uganda Prisons Frank Baine says they currently have a total of 199 inmates on death row.
This statement comes in due course as Civil Society Organizations continue advocating for the removal of the death penalty worldwide.
The organisations, in collaboration with several stake holders are today marking the 14th year of their campaign geared at compelling countries to abolish the death penalty, an act they say ” violates human rights, is cruel, inhuman and degrading”
In 2005, the Constitutional Court, in a petition filed Susan Kigula and 416 others against the Attorney General, declared the death sentences passed on all the petitioners unconstitutional and gave government a two-year period to effect the judgement. The Attorney General appealed the case but in 2009, the Supreme Court upheld the judgement.
Speaking to state aided newspaper The New Vision, the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative’s campaign head Lucy Peace Nantume says countries which are still having the death penalty in their constitution should urgently remove it because the death penalty shall never be a deterrent to criminal offenses because the convict is not given an opportunity to reform.
Judiciary spokesperson Erias Kisawuzi says although death penalty is still constitutional, the Supreme Court advised Judges to sentence all the convicts for longer periods like 30 years, which explains why the state last carried out an execution in 1999, and has now rendered the penalty unnecessary.
cnakalungi@ugchristiannews.com
