Opinion: Why I support President Museveni's argument on death penalty

By Haji Nsereko Mutumba

While delivering his remarks during the Benedicto Kiwanuka Memorial lecture on 27th September 2021, President Museveni spoke strongly against the tendency of granting bail to people who intentionally and recklessly kill people.

He also defended the death penalty punishment for those found guilty of cold blood murder.

However, he had since come under attack from politicians and activists who claim that he is targeting the opposition.

How can they be so naive to the ongoing murders in the country. Just a few weeks ago, many people lost their loved ones to the so called “Bijambiya” killers. Prior to that, a woman had been murdered and her body hidden in a septic tank.

We have all witnessed cases of the brutal murder of women, Muslim clerics as well as cases of child sacrifice where children are murdered and their bodies mutilated by the killers.

What about the atrocities committed by Joseph Kony’s LRA in northern Uganda and the mass murder masterminded by one Kibwetere in 2000.

We have also seen an increase in people who trade in human body organs. These are nothing less than murders.

There are also LDU elements who have recklessly killed and continue to kill the wanainchi.

What other sentence would you give to such ruthless, merciless and remorseless people apart from death?

The most straightforward argument for the death penalty is that it saves innocent lives by preventing convicted murderers from killing again.

The death penalty is firmly grounded in many traditional and religious rationales for punishment.

Yes it is true that executing the murders does not bring back their victims, but at least it weeds them out of our communities saving the lives of the would be victims.

It also sends a strong message to the would be murders that the similar fate awaits them.

And if you put your self in the shoes of those whose loved ones have been murdered under similar circumstances; knowing that the person who brutally took the life of your loved one is no more comes with great relief.

To those politicians and activists who are opposed to the death sentence, on whose side are you?

The president is talking about hardcore and self confessed killers who would kill again and again if they are not stopped.

I think it is the duty of the president to protect Ugandans from such people even if that means executing them as long as they are found guilty of murder in competent courts of law.

The writer is a Senior Media Consultant