Prisons incurs shs 3bn as prosecutors’ strike bites

The Uganda Prisons spokesperson, Frank Baine, has said the ongoing strike by prosecutors from the Director of Public Prosecutions has escalated the expenditure on inmates in various prisons.

Last week, prosecutors under their umbrella body, the Uganda Association of Prosecutors announced a resumption of their sit down strike after government failed to fulfill its promise on pay.

According to Baine, Uganda prisons has spent over Shs 3 billion in one week so far to meet the needs of priosners.

Baine said they are supposed to take 1500 prisoners to court everyday on a normal day and of these, over 500 are released but he says this has not been the case in the past one week or so since the prosecutors strike began.

“We use over 5000 litres of fuel and 3500 shillings on each inmate every day. Last week it was slightly over Shs 1 billion shillings but this has escalated to almost Shs 3 billion this week,” Baine said.

“The cost has been increasing every day because the courts are not working and none is released yet we have to take them to court every day because it is their right to be taken to court.”

There are 260 two prisons around the country but according to Baine,they would soon be forced to relocate prisoners from more populated to less populated prisons.

“We have to transport them(prisoners) to court everyday, feed and provide medication to them even though courts don’t sit,” Baine said of the situation around the country.

 

On Tuesday, a tour around Kampala courts indicated that over one hundred prisoners went sent back to Luzira prison after courts didn’t sit.

Uganda Association of Prosecutors President David Baxter Bakibinga said efforts to seek redress from government proved futile.

“This time we will not resume work without anything tangible got. We will only return to court when government acts on our demands,”Bakibinga said.

The minister for Public Service Muruli Mukasa last  week said government is working around the clock to address the issue of salaries among its workers but said this would come in the next financial year.

“If there are individuas who feel tired or don’t want to work for the current salary structure,they are free to walk away,”Muruli told journalists at the Uganda Media Centre in Kampala.

He said government is willing to pay them well but said this cannot be possible currently adding this would soon be addressed.