Sande speaks incoherently and it takes patience for one to understand what he is communicating.
He has spent 22 years in Katojo Prison in Kabarole District after he was charged with murder and sent to the cells. At the time of his arrest, he was a juvenile and found to be mentally ill after a medical examination by the prison’s medical personal.

MHP

Eric, 44, is also another prisoner suffering from mental sickness, who has spent 11 years behind bars. He was arrested from his home in Rwimi Village, Kabarole District on July 9, 2002 by residents, who accused him of murdering his eight-year-old son.

The residents handed Eric to Rwimi Police, who transferred him to Fort Portal Central Police. He was later committed to the High Court and taken to Katojo Prison.

But on December 1, 2006 when Eric re-appeared in court, the court confirmed that by the time he committed the offence, he was mentally sick and he was taken back to prison pending the Justice minister’s decision.

Eric has two children, one of whom is now in Senior Four at Mubuku Secondary School while the other is in Primary Seven at King Jesus Primary School all in Kasese District.
His wife Amureti says her husband was mentally ill when he killed their son and she often visits him in prison.

The two prisoners are among nine mentally ill prisoners who have spent more than a decade in prison because of the government’s failure to respond to a request from the prison authorities to order their release.

“On a number of occasions, the High Court has ordered that some prisoners be committed to prison pending minister’s (Justice) order. Unfortunately, however, these orders have never been executed. It is my humble request that this committee (Justice, Law and Order Sector) gives it due consideration,” said Mr Allan Okello, the western regional prisons commander.

Okello was making an appeal he knows he has made several times to the authorities responsible. This time, it was to the outgoing Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki, when he visited Katojo Prison last month.

 

‘No powers’
However, even Justice Odoki, who has been at the helm for a decade only wondered why judges’ orders have not been implemented and said he had no powers to release them.

“I wonder why the nine prisoners are still in prison, if I had powers I would have released them but give me their names. I am going to talk to the minister so that they can be released,” he said.

The country has had five different ministers for Justice and Constitutional Affairs for the time these mentally ill persons have been kept in a facility not meant for mentally ill persons.
When contacted, the current Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Maj. Gen. Kahinda Otafiire, wondered why such people were still in prison.

“Ah, I will find out really because this was cleared three months ago, thank you for letting me know this because as of now, we don’t have any prisoners on record pending minister’s orders on my desk,” Maj. Gen. Otafiire said, adding, “May be High Court did not transmit the records to us, but thank you, we shall find out.”

 

Rights body intervenes 
The mentally ill persons are considered prisoners who cannot ably defend themselves in court over such capital offences due to their state of mental health and as such, court cannot determine their cases, convict or sentence them but just commit them to prison pending the minister’s order.

Several ministers of Justice since 1991 have either ignored this or the matter was not brought to their attention by courts or the transmission system failed.

Human Rights Watch last year pointed out that several other prisoners are languishing in different prisons around the country on the indefinite detention by High Court pending orders from the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs to pardon them.

 

The rights body intervened and several times wrote to the Minister of Justice on the matter, mentioning names of all the mental patients behind bars.

“The Ugandan minister of Justice should immediately inform 17 individuals who have languished in prison for years of their legal status,” Human Rights Watch said on June 24, 2009 in a letter to the then Justice minister Kiddhu Makubuya.

“Locking people up and throwing away the key is no way to treat anyone, much less a child or someone who is mentally ill,” said Mr Georgette Gagnon, then Human Rights Watch Africa Director in a 2011 letter.

Under the law, the minister of Justice must issue orders regarding the sentencing or discharge of such cases of people who commit crimes while insane.

However, Human Rights Watch says it established that superintendents of custodial facilities are allegedly not submitting such reports without the minister’s orders, which led to individuals being detained on remand indefinitely, a situation which constitutes arbitrary detention and a violation of human rights law.

The individuals on remand in this category have no effective opportunity to challenge the legitimacy of their detention as they do not in practice have access to lawyers. In practice, lawyers are only provided by the State at the trial stage.