Civilians remain jailed by Uganda’s military courts, despite Supreme Court ruling

Uganda’s Supreme Court in January banned the trial of civilians in military court with immediate effect. In practice, people who oppose President Yoweri Museveni remain in prison — and with even fewer ways to get out.

Wakiso, Uganda | Nakisanze Segawa Global Press Journal Uganda |  Uganda’s Supreme Court ruled in January that prosecuting civilians in military courts is unconstitutional. When that happened, Ann was ecstatic.

Her brother was approaching four years on remand. To her, the ruling meant he would be free in a few days. He’d been tried several times in Uganda’s General Court Martial, a military court, on charges of treason and illegal possession of ammunition. He was set for another trial at a date yet to be scheduled. Ann, who asked Global Press Journal to use only her first name for fear of prosecution, says the claims against him are false. All he did, she says, was express support for Bobi Wine, a key Ugandan politician and member of the country’s opposition party.

The Supreme Court ruling nullified the practice of civilian trials in military courts with immediate effect.

The ruling “felt like quenching long years of freedom thirst for my brother,” Ann says.

But since then, only opposition leader Kizza Besigye, who was set to undergo a military trial, has been officially reassigned to a civilian court and charged with treason.

There is little hope that numerous lesser-known cases, many of which involve charges of armed robbery and weapons possession, will escape the military courts as the government insists on military jurisdiction over some of these cases, despite the Supreme Court’s disapproval. Even if authorities initiate the transfer to civilian courts, the process could take years.

A government report from February 2024 shows that 264 people were held on remand for trial in military courts. Global Press Journal reached out to Johnson Byabashaija, Uganda’s commissioner general of prisons, for the latest figures. He did not respond to the request. But George Musisi, a Kampala-based lawyer, says about 2,000 civilians are held on remand under different court martials.

Even if the government implements the Supreme Court decision, many of those people will remain stuck, Musisi says. They could have applied for bail through the military court, but that court no longer has jurisdiction over the cases. And the civilian courts don’t yet have the files of those detained, so they can’t apply for bail there, either. The whole process could take months or even years, he says.

Families of the accused are frustrated, and this sentiment only deepened when President Yoweri Museveni, in a post on his X account, called the court’s decision “wrong,” adding that trying civilians in the military court was a way for him to protect Ugandans from “criminals armed with guns.”

Museveni’s critics say many of those arrested are opponents of his government, and that trying them in military courts is a way for the president to further consolidate power after nearly four decades in office. The military now handles public construction, holds seats in Parliament, and plays major roles in the government. Museveni’s son is the head of the country’s defense forces.

Military courts are just another convenient way for the state to squash dissent, says Nkunyingi Muwada, an opposition member of Parliament. They do the bidding of the state in a way civilian courts would not.

In February, Amnesty International condemned the militarization of the country’s justice system and called on Ugandan authorities to release key members of the opposition it says have been unlawfully detained.

Henry Byansi, a human rights lawyer and program manager at Chapter Four, a civil liberties-focused nonprofit, says ignoring the court’s decision is an abuse of the constitution and contempt of court. Authorities responsible for implementing the ruling — the country’s attorney general and the director of public prosecution — should have acted immediately, he says.

But Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs Norbert Mao said during a parliamentary session that the public should not be misled by the ruling. It wasn’t a release order, he said, but an order to bring the prisoners to the proper court.

“We should not excite the public that it should be a release,” he said.

Musa, who asked that only his last name be used, says his brother is a supporter of National Unity Platform, the leading opposition political party in Uganda. In 2021, men in civilian clothes arrested his brother at his home in a Kampala suburb. His brother was charged in a military court for treachery and unlawful possession of ammunition with intention to overthrow the government. Musa says those charges are baseless. Since then, his brother, the father of two children, has been on remand.

“Delayed release of my brother and his friends is justice denied,” Musa says.

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