The Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka has defended his office on why they lied to Justice Simon Peter Kinobe of the Civil Division of the High Court that the two missing Kenyan activists Nicholas Oyo and Bob Njagi were not in the custody of the army or any other security agencies.
Justice Kinobe based on the Attorney General’s case to dismiss the habeas corpus application and directed the victims’ lawyers to report the missing persons at police so that they can continue with the investigations concerning the whereabouts of the two activists who were kidnapped in Uganda as they were mobilizing support for opposition strongman Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine).
In his ruling, Justice Kinobe stated that continuing with the matter after the Attorney General had confirmed that the victims are not in state custody would tantamount to trying to squeeze blood out of a stone.
He thus dismissed the application.
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However, after the involvement of former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and the Kenyan government, the victims were released and President Museveni confirmed that for a month, the activists were detained in a facility he branded as a ‘fridge’. Museveni divulged that the duo, who he branded as experts in riots had come to Uganda to train opposition youth on how to riot and demonstrate.
Kenyan lawyers and journalists based on Museveni confirmation to ask Justice Kinobe to resign because of the fraudulent ruling he made to exonerate a government which later admitted to have committed an illegality.
Others placed the burden on Kiwanuka noting that his actions resulted into the fraudulent court decision.
However, while responding to the matter, the Attorney General insisted that the incident was not intentional. He explained that his office based on the information given to him by security bosses.
He added that they usually warn security personnel to be careful with the information they share with them since it is going to be used in court. He added that they always warn these security officers that once they discover that the information given was intended to mislead, the person behind the misleading information is sanctioned.
“Whenever we get habeas corpus applications, we directly move to that entity or organization mentioned to ask them if they have that person, and where he or her is, and it is on that basis that we respond. We always caution these people to be serious and careful when sharing with us that information,” Kiwanuka stated on the X space discussion.
He added that sometimes it takes a long time to verify the information given on the said matter because government issues don’t move as fast as people want them to but they make sure that they catch up with the time given to them by court to respond to the application.
He admitted that it is true, government is concerned when people go missing but protested the use of the term abductions insisting that government doesn’t abduct but it arrests. That is why they are trying to streamline the method of arrest and detention of persons.
Kiwanuka noted that he has no problem keeping an arrested person in government detention for more than the constitutionally stipulated 48 hours before they are taken to court if government can have satisfying grounds to defend itself on why did so.
On the issue of officers arresting civilians in civilian clothes and hiding their identity, the Attorney General explained that it depends on the operation.
He divulged that when operatives arrest a suspected terrorist, they have to hide their identity but if it is simple suspects, they have to introduce themselves and the reason why the arrest is being carried out.
He warned security officers that the law allows them to be personally prosecuted once they take the law into their own hands when executing their duties.
He further revealed that on several occasions, government lawyers have refused to defend individuals in security in court cases filed against them because what they did was not in the interest of the sitting government.
