NEWS EDITOR
BUSIRO East legislator Hon. Medard Sseggona Lubega who happens to be the lawyer for his colleague Hon. Francis Butebi Zaake has called on Ugandans to stand with this Mityana Municipality MP who was arrested on Sunday evening on accusations of giving out food to hungry people.
MP Zaake is opposition People Power National Youth cordinator, with very close links to Hon. Robert Ssentamu Kyagulanyi, 2021 presidential aspirant.
Hon. Sseggona has said, “Hon Francis Zaake has been been arrested from his residence in Buswabulongo – Mityana and taken to an unknown destination. Keep him in your prayers.”
He is likely to face charges of attempted murder as directed by His Excellency the President which is being highly contested by lawyers who include Male Mabirizi saying the president has no powers to make such a law.
Museveni has repeatedly warned politicians and other people from distributing food to hungry people during Covid-19 lockdown saying those arrested will be charged with attempted murder.
In his address, Museveni told police, “In the meantime, arrest the opportunistic and irresponsible politicians who try to distribute food for cheap popularity. Those are very dangerous to the health of the people.”
“When you try to distribute food or money in such a situation, people gather around you. Many people can be infected in that process. You will, therefore, have caused the sickness or death of those people. Anybody involved in that effort should be arrested and charged with attempted murder.” ordered the President.
However Lawyers are saying, the President has no mandate to ammend the laws.
It’s alleged, Hon. Zaake on Sunday distributed food to hungry Mityana Municipality people.
Our investigation team tells us, a team of security officers raided Hon. Zaake’s Buswabulongo Mityana residence, broke into his house and forcefully arrested him for feeding his people.
“Hon. Zaake will now face it in courts of law on charges of defying Presidential orders and attempted murder.” Said a top police officer in Mityana.
We are told, MP Zaake is being detained at Kunywa Police post, a few miles from Mityana.
His lawyers are doing everything to trace their client.
“Ammendment of statutes is a preserve of the legislature. He is not a member of the National assembly therefore, he has no mandate to amend the laws.” Said counsel Moses Kabuusu, former Kyamuswa member of Parliament.
City lawyer Male Mabirizi when approached to interprete the law had this to say: “It is President Museveni’s illegal speech orders which amount to attempted murder.”
Challenging President Museveni on attempted murder charges, Lawyer Mabirizi said, “President Museveni did not cite any law under which the politicians would be charged with attempted murder yet he was addressing the Nation and illegally directing the Police Force which both the Constitutional and Supreme Courts have found to be incompetent and partisan going by the way they harassed Ugandans in 2017 over the age limit removal”.
For lawyer Kabuusu, “The principle of legality as enshrined in Article 28(7) presupposes no person shall be charged and or convicted of an offence not prescribed by any law with its penalty prescribed there of.”
He says: For the offence of attempted murder to stand it has ingredients that must be fulfilled
- Attempt to (murder)
And for murder there are ingredients to be fulfilled thus; - Death or a dead body/corpse
- Unlawfully executed
- With Malice aforethought
- Liability of the accused Those ingredients are not very easy to prove against a politician giving out food to hungry and angry people.
