By Mary Asujo
The speaker of Parliament Anita Among has asked government to speed up the trial for the two jailed legislators; Kawempe South MP Ssegirinya Muhamad and Makindye West MP Allan Sewanyana, so that justice is served.
In her communication to the house on Wednesday, Among and MPs acknowledged that it’s now a full year since their colleagues were arrested and later jailed for various offences.
“I ask government to ensure a speedy trial for those two MPs so that justice is served,” said Among.
The Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Mathias Mpuuga (LOP) said that it is evident the two were arrested before investigations were made adding that it is very disheartening that for a full year now, their two constituencies have been without any representation in the house.
The international crimes division of the High Court recently dismissed an application filed by jailed MPs Muhammad Ssegirinya and Allan Sewanyana in which they were seeking compensation of Shs 300 million and a declaration that their re-arrest shortly after being granted bail, was a violation of their human rights.
Sewanyana and Ssegirinya were first arrested on September 7, 2021, alongside seven others in connection to the machete killings in the greater Masaka district. They were later on September 21, 2021, granted bail but were shortly after re-arrested from the outskirts of Kigo prisons on fresh murder charges preferred against them stemming from the Lwengo district machete killings where more than 20 people were killed.
Following their rearrest, their lawyers including Samuel Muyizzi Mulindwa, Shamim Malende and Kassim Sekalema, the legislators petitioned the High court seeking compensation of Shs 300 million and release from prison where they argued that their clients were illegally being imprisoned.
The lawyers told court that the legislators were illegally re-arrested because they had shortly been granted bail by Justice Victoria Katamba and fulfilled all the bail terms including the payment of Shs 20 million each.