Uganda Prisons services continues to carry out its work of delivering inmates to courts to have their cases heard as per the laws of the land.
According to Frank Baine the Uganda Prisons spokesperson, they currently have 61,169 prisoners in 264 prisons across the country who are serving different sentences while others are on remand.
Baine told the media in Kampala on Monday morning that courts are hearing cases of sex and Gender Based Violence, GBV in Kiboga, Jinja, Iganga, Arua and Gulu. These are ongoing alongside other cases in the High Court.
In the first two weeks of COVID-19 lockdown which started in March 2020, Police recorded more than 328 cases of domestic violence. Police also recorded 102 cases of abandonment and child neglect.
Uganda Prisons is one of the government departments that has been heavily hit by COVID-19, but Baine says all patients in Gulu and Jinja treatment centres are stable.
“As far as COVID-19 is concerned, all our patients in Gulu and Jinja treatments centres are stable. Even those in referral hospitals are also stable and anytime we expect them to be cleared of COVID-19” Baine said.
Prisons isolation centres of Kitarya, Kasangati and Kauga are also admitting inmates while Kampala, Mpigi and Entebbe courts are also running.
Baine says they expect a significant reduction in the number of inmates since courts are running almost to near normal conditions. He refuted allegations by Hon Lutamaguzi who claims that he was taken to more than ten prisons in one night.
Police arrested Lutamaguzi for holding a political rally last week. The MP however claims he was in danger of catching Coronavirus after being taken around to several prisons in one night.
However, Baine says all this is nonsense and that all gazette prisons in Uganda are known, so the MP is not being truthful. “I don’t know by the time he moves around 10 prisons in Kampala, how long it would have taken him. I think as a leader, if he wants to communicate, let him be honest and speak the truth. We do not allow new inmates to mix with old inmates” Baine noted.
