‘Museveni letter on torture is cosmetic’

Sewanyana says he was disappointed that even after the country was alarmed by the Nalufenya torture cases, Museveni did not order any arrest of offenders.

“The president who signed the Prohibition Against Torture Act, 2012, and who is the custodian of the Uganda Constitution did not order for the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators.”

“So who else is going to decisively deal with this problem if the president chooses to educate us on the dangers of torture without sanctioning prosecution of the perpetrators?”

Sewanyana says torture seems not to be taken seriously by the political elites yet torture’s devastating effect on the victim and governance of a country are quite enormous.

Ndifuna of HURINET-U says many things need to be done to realise the intentions of the Prohibition Against Torture Act

“We think the state should have followed the enactment of the anti-torture legislation with re-orienting the security agencies and operatives’ training to the new thinking that we have a law against torture,” he told The Independent.

As the debate rages, Lt. Col. Deo Akiiki and Emilian Kayima, the spokespersons of the army and police respectively say the security agencies will immediately implement the president’s guidelines.