An investigation is to be launched to establish circumstances under which, Prison warders at Kanungu Government Prison in Kanungu District tortured two inmates.
The warders are accused of torturing Joel Tumwesigye and David Baranga, both residents of Northern ward in Butogota Town Council in Kanungu district.
Trouble started after Tumwesigye and Baranga were arrested along with nine others on January 20, 2017 on accusations of conniving with DRC nationals to kidnap people and demand ransom from their relatives. These were arraigned before the Kanungu grade one magistrate’s court, which remanded them to Kanungu Government Prison.
The duo however claim that when they arrived in Kanungu Government Prison, the Warders kept them on handcuffs for three days and continuously tortured them. Prison authorities were forced to transfer the inmates to Ndorwa Government Prison in Kabale District so as to access treatment at Kabale Regional Referral Hospital following protests from their relatives.
Now, Jonathan Bwagi of Bwagi and Company advocates, the lawyer of the torture victims, says his clients are battling the injuries they sustained as a result of the torture on remand, and were also denied food for three days.
Bwagi has demanded that the top Uganda Prison Services leadership investigates the matter and take action. He also wants the Prison authorities to investigate the death of Enos Maniriho, a resident of Kyabuyorwa upper in Butogota town council in Kanungu district.
Maniriho died in the prison cells of suspected poisoning. Kabale High Court Judge, Moses Kawuma Kazibwe says he personally saw injuries on the suspects when they appeared before court early this month.
Justice Kazibwe notes that a Prison is a place for redemption not for torture. He also says he has received several complaints of torture from inmates against prison warders in Kanungu Government prison.
James Aissu, the Kigezi Region Prisons Commander admits that his office has received complaints of torture, adding that he is in the process of writing a report to the office of the Commissioner General of Prisons about the matter.
