By Andrew Cohen Amvesi
ARUA
Justice Tadeo Asiimwe, the Chairperson of the National Community Service Program in the Courts of Judicature has appealed to Judicial officers to make community service orders more meaningful to the society they serve.
Asiimwe’s appeal made on Tuesday, 16th January, 2024, follows concerns raised by local leaders in West Nile about some of the community service orders given by Judicial officials which they said are not punitive enough.
“What is wrong in a court saying, I have sentenced you to go for a whole week and clean up a drainage system from one corner of Arua up to the other corner by just removing the silt which the rain deposited yesterday, and an enforcement vehicle is on the road instead waiting to carry it away. Your duty is to load; you put Monday, you put Tuesday, you put Wednesday – will that person again come and boast that he has been employed by the Municipal council?” Asiimwe asked during a meeting at Arua High Court on Tuesday.
“And again, you will make our community service serve the purpose by not giving offenders to do nice things only, because if I tell you to pick garbage from the market and you will be the one to lift the garbage bins every day. You know how smelly it can be, is that a job somebody will clap for? Or when we tell you that you are the one going to clean the toilets of a secondary school every day, will that be bragging? So, we can make our orders more meaningful,” Asiimwe remarked.
As Judicial officers keep on doing that, Asiimwe also encouraged the local leaders in the region to consider sensitizing the public about this form of punishment and why it is administered so as to resolve community outcries.
Asiimwe was responding to Swaib Toko, the Madi Okollo Resident District Commissioner (RDC) who said most offenders sentenced to do community service especially at sub-county headquarters end up bragging about how easy it is to sweep around and walk away with the offense committed.
Toko noted that at times, other offenders claim that they are now employees of the institution where they are serving the sentence in the eyes of their complainants, an act he said has continued to fuel anger among members of the community.
Toko made the remarks during the meeting organized to discuss the state of community service in the Judicial system in West Nile.
In 2001, Uganda introduced the Community Service Orders Program as an alternative to imprisonment, especially of those with minor offences.
This method, an outcome of the Kampala Declaration in 1996, was seen as the answer to reduction of overcrowding in prisons as well as improving reintegration of offenders into their communities.
It was also not only good for reconciliation, but would help decrease the high costs the government was incurring to maintain prisoners.
It is against this background that ACP Ndori Leni, the West Nile Region Prisons Commander said as of today in the region, he has 4,155 prisoners of which 16 are children and 15 are debtors.
“But usually when you look at these numbers, they are not our numbers, we usually transfer outside the region certain cases which are not meant to be served from here most especially, like you saw Arua prisons handles around 17 years and below. If somebody is 18 years and above, we take to Kitalya, we take to Nakasongola, Gulu cases which are a bit far from their home areas. That is why you see that we have 1,000 but when we go to the records to get what belongs to us, they are more than 2,200 there,” Leni said.
He, however, noted that they are already in good partnership with all stakeholders including community service, judiciary and that they are appreciative of the team they have in the region so far.
“You will find those days back; somebody is a petty offender who qualifies for community service but spends around six months in prison awaiting justice which is no longer the case now. Of recent, most of the prisoners who qualify for community service, plea-bargain, all these stakeholders have really handled it as a team and I really want to commend them. If this continues in this region, we are going to really succeed,” Leni stressed.
Leni further observed that in his region, the number of remands is lesser than the number of convicts which means that there is work in progress.
While presenting the status report on the implementation of community service program in Arua, Maracha, Koboko and Yumbe courts, Edgar Tukahaabwa, the Arua Senior Grade One Chief Magistrate said from July to December 2023, a total of 415 community service orders were issued against the target of 660.
He said the performance represents 62.9 percent which gives them hope of achieving the annual target.
