Prisoners who are facing charges that can result into life imprisonment and death sentence and those who are serving their sentences are celebrating the decision of the National Unity Platform (NUP) top leadership including Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) to deny Medard Lubega Ssegona the party ticket in the coming parliamentary elections.
NUP declared Mathius Walukaga as their party candidate for Busiro East, dropping Ssegona who had contested for the same card after serving fifteen years representing the said constituency.
Ssegona declared that he is going to contest as an independent insisting that he still has unfinished business in parliament which inmates led by Godfrey Kato Kajubi who is serving life imprisonment protested noting that, like Kampala Central legislator Muhammad Nsereko who brought laws to imprisons social media users, Ssegona has also been supporting bad laws.
“God has paid well that man (Ssegona) he was the one behind the Miscellaneous Amendments Act 2021 that changed the arrangement in sentencing people including innocent ones who annoy those with power. Because of these bad laws, people are rotting in prison. Someone with power picks interest in your piece of land and when you refuse to sell the land to him, they compromise the criminal system and charge you with murder and other grave offences which can result into death or life imprisonment,” one of the inmates told this website last week
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This inmate explained that it was Ssegona who brought the amendment to change the life imprisonment clause from 20 years to one dying in prison noting that now, if someone convicted of life, he or she has to die from prison.
“For purposes of any enactment prescribing life imprisonment or imprisonment for life, life imprisonment or imprisonment for life means imprisonment for the natural life of a person without the possibility of being released,” the Amended Act reads in parts
It further reads that, “Notwithstanding subsection (1), a person liable to imprisonment for life or life imprisonment may be sentenced for any shorter term of imprisonment not exceeding fifty years”
Inmates explained to Ono Bwino last week that before Ssegona’s law, they were very sure that a convict starts serving his sentence with one and a third remission but in the new amendment, a convict must have spent more than 10 years serving his or her sentence.
This website has established that Ssegona understands that inmates especially those in Upper prison are bitter with him and are ready to revenge on him if he steps foot inside prison.
That is why he decided never to step in prison. This is the reason why he is not visiting his clients who include founding commander of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) Sheikh Jamil Mukulu Kyagulanyi and his friend Dr Kizza Besigye
However, Hajjat Aisha Kabanda the NUP deputy Secretary General revealed that one of the reasons why Ssegona was denied the party card is because he is unpopular on the ground and voters have been chasing him from their public gatherings.
She cited the example of the burial of Mukono Municipality legislator Betty Nambooze’s father, “Even though elites claim that Hon Ssegona is a good legislator, the ground says otherwise and the party was not ready to lose that seat in parliament to other political parties. I pray for my brother Hon Ssegona to calm down because the party is set to assign him with other responsibilities,” Kabanda said
Ssegona rejected the narrative that the people on ground rejected him. He accused his competitors of inciting the public against him boasting that he is still strong and chances are high that he will defeat Walukaga in the coming polls.
