Politics involves choices and moods. The Ugandan leader, Yoweri Museveni, seems to be swaying towards re-introducing the death penalty, thirteen years after the country’s last execution. President Museveni attributed his earlier decision to stop capital punishment to his Christian background. But last Tuesday, Mr. Museveni said his leniency has encouraged criminals to become daring and that would force him to revisit the matter.
Human rights groups are not amused. They have warned against the move especially as Uganda has about 30 offences in the statutes that call for the death penalty. The groups claim that Uganda has the highest number of death penalty cases in East Africa. They also say that about 300 people are already on death row in the country.
President Yoweri Museveni wrote on his Twitter page that in order to deter criminals in Uganda, his administration had decided to “hang a few criminals” at a graduation ceremony for prison wardens in Kampala next week. Human rights groups quickly countered that death penalty is not the answer. The executive director of Uganda’s Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, Livingstone Ssewanyana, declared emphatically that executing criminals had not eliminated crime anywhere in the world.
Statistics show that in recent years, crime has risen with the murder of twenty women in four months in the capital, Kampala, last year. Critics blame the police for witch-hunting – targeting opponents of the government rather than catching criminals generally.
However, other observers suggested that President Museveni may not be serious about restarting executions. One of them, Nicholas Opiyo, who works for the group known as Chapter Four told reporters that Mr. Museveni’s tweet was “political talk” aimed at boosting his popularity.
The President, who is 73, upset the political chart last year when he amended the country’s constitution so that he could run for re-election in 2021. Originally, the constitution barred anyone above 75 years from running for president. Mr. Museveni has ruled Uganda since 1986.
