By Anthony Kushaba
apearlnews.com
A move by the court in Kisoro to hand a 30 months’ prison sentence to a couple in Kisoro has angered legal brains.
The couple was on Tuesday handed 30 months in prison for indecent practice after they were filmed performing a sexual act in public along Kisoro- Bunagana Highway in Kisoro Municipality.
They were convicted by the Magistrates Court at Kisoro.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions sanctioned the charge of indecent practice against the duo.
It was alleged that Paskali Hafashimana and Colodina Muhawimana Mukamulenzi on the 2nd day of November 2021 at about 5:00 pm along Kisoro Road in Kisoro Municipality in Kisoro District performed a sexual act, an act of gross indecency in public.
The duo appeared in court yesterday for a plea with Peter Muhendo Peter as the Prosecutor and His Worship Fred Gidudu as the trial magistrate.
The two pleaded guilty to the charge and were sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment.
However, shadow Attorney general Wilfred Niwagaba who also doubles as the legislator for Ndorwa East constituency in Kabale district thinks that the punishment was too harsh.
He says that the two could have been sentenced to community service, they are mature and though did a shameful act sending them to jail for more than two years feeding on taxpayers’ money in already overstretched prisons overcrowded by convicts and remand prisoners was excessive.
Niwagaba says that the move was in his view unnecessary.
Eron Kiiza a human rights lawyer and partner at Kiiza and Mugisha advocates says that the punishment to the couple is uncalled for.
Kiiza says that the whole process is populist and unnecessary overreacting adding that the people needed counseling and guidance rather than prosecution and punishment.
According to him, the couple should have been merely cautioned or given community service.
He further reveals that Kisoro District and Uganda generally have bigger problems than an errant couple having roadside sex.
Kiiza wants the prosecution machinery to instead be put on addressing, Corruption and accountability. Environmental degradation among others.
Dr. Busingye Kabumba a law lecturer at Makerere school of law thinks that the punishment was too harsh.
‘In my view, the punishment was rather disproportionate to the offence. In addition, more consideration should have been paid towards the extent of the lady’s autonomy and consent in those particular circumstances.’
Kisoro district has since the beginning of this year registered over 15 cases of murder and over five cases of rape as well as dozens of robbery cases.
What has been the concern of the locals and authorities is that most of these cases have either been messed up by police or the perpetrators handed light sentences by courts of law and they return to the villages to torment locals.
