The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Uganda Prisons Service has allowed individuals and companies who wish to donate food items to fasting inmates to go ahead and do so.
Speaking at the daily security briefing at the Uganda Media Centre in Kampala on Thursday, Frank Baine, the spokesperson of the Uganda Prisons Service said, despite the ban on all visits to prisons around the country as means to deter the spread of coronavirus among prisoners, Muslims observing the fasting month of Ramadhan need to be supported.
Ramadhan is the ninth month on the Islamic calendar where Muslims around the world are supposed to fast from dawn to dusk, started on April 24.
Meanwhile, Baine said that the prisons have started releasing the 833 prisoners who this week were pardoned by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni through his prerogative of mercy window as provided for in the constitution under article 121.
Baine said those who have been released are those who were serving sentences not exceeding two years. They also needed to have served more than two thirds of their sentences. Biane warned those pardoned to desist from repeating the same crimes for which they were arrested and sentenced. “We expect you to put in place what you have learnt in prisons that make you good citizens. Please when you find people home, stay home until such a time when you are told you are free to do what you want,” said Baine.
For his part, Fred Enanga, the spokesperson of the Uganda Police called upon Ugandans to continue observing the guidelines that the government put in place to fight the spread of the Coronavirus. He said those they find flouting them, will be arrested.
He revealed that they are holding two hardware shop owners who were found at night selling building materials despite the ban on them by the president. Those arrested include; Juliet Wansa, 37, a resident of Munyonyo with a hardware shop in Ndeeba, Lubaga division and Sulaiman Mulumba arrested from Lubaga road where he owns a hardware shop called Give and take.
Enanga also talked about the arrest of a Nigerian suspected of dealing in narcotics.
Enanga added that they have information that a number of foreigners from South Sudan, DR Congo, Kenya who manipulate the systems in Uganda and sell narcotics especially in the areas of Muyenga and Kabalagala. Enanga said they are going to move against all these groups and dismantle them.
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