Katureebe cautions Museveni on scrapping bail
Former Chief Justice, Bart Katureebe, has urged President Museveni to rethink his position on the proposal to scrap bail for suspected capital offenders.
Recently, Museveni expressed his determination to scrap bail for suspected capital offenders and reinstate the mandatory death penalty.
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However, legal experts and human rights activists have on several times dismissed Museveni’s push to scrap court bail for suspected capital offenders and renew the mandatory death penalty for convicted murders.
Speaking during the launch of Praxis Conflict Centre (PCC), the first alternative Dispute Resolution Firm in Uganda, Katureebe said revisiting the constitution will solve the current impasse.
“The Foundation for Human Rights Initiative had gone to the court challenging certain aspects of bail saying it is a right and the constitutional court disagreed with them. They appealed to the Supreme Court. We sat a panel of five to seven judges because it is a constitutional matter and we gave a decision. We have reasoned judgments there so go and read our judgments," he said.
Regarding Alternative Dispute Resolution(ADR), Katureebe advised conflicting parties to always explore other avenues.
"Cases are taking as many as five years or even more to resolve. This not only denies the litigants the right to have speedy trials and resolution of disputes, but ties up valuable resources from the economy, particularly with regard to commercial justice," he said.
He explained that he has increasingly become convinced that there is need to put more emphasis on ADR mechanisms such as mediation, negotiation and arbitration, whereby parties can participate in the quick resolution of their disputes and only go to the formal court system when they must.
Katureebe said there is a need to have a team of professional, credible ADR practitioners and provide the necessary facilities to promote alternative dispute resolution.
