http://www.monitor.co.ug/SpecialReports/-/688342/1136954/-/us37yo/-/index.html

A mob pounces on a resident accusing him of stealing a phone at a campaign rally in Busesa in Iganga District last year. 

Mob justice as it is euphemistically called, has become rampant as Pauline Kairu reports from Jinja. As the writer indicates, there is no justice about it, as many innocent people get killed in the heat of violent and mindless mob action.

A charcoal seller in Nabiganda Trading Centre in Butaleja District was recently stoned to death by a mob for allegedly stealing a bicycle. Peter Were, 23, was cornered by a mob armed with machetes, stones, clubs and all sorts of dangerous weapons, accusing him of being responsible for the increasing theft of bicycles and motorcycles in the area.

As he cowered in terror, stones and iron bars started raining on him as more spectators joined in the blood lust carnival whose only intent was to snuff out Were’s life.

The allegedly stolen bicycle belonged to Mr Faizoal Nehwasa.

Within minutes, his body lay under a pile of stones, immobile. The vigilantes had accomplished their goal, and without any remorse, went back to their homes.

According to the LC1 chairman of Masulula village, Mr Fred Muloki, the area was facing increasing cases of theft and robbery by people believed to be from neighbouring areas of Mazimansa and Kachonga sub-counties.

Mr Muloki had been present when the 8:30p.m. kangaroo court dispensed this brutal form of summary justice. He said efforts to arrest the situation and stop the angry mob had been futile.

When the police finally arrived at the scene of the heinous mob action, Were was no more. Mr Alex Olowo, the officer in-charge Butaleja Central Police Station, blamed the mob for taking the law into their hands. They had not stopped to find out any other details regarding the bicycle.

Death at a police station
Another mob that took the law in its hands was in Iganga. Three people were killed in cold blood on February 19 in Namungalwe Sub-county on suspicion of kidnapping and killing a young boy for human sacrifice, only for the boy to be found alive a month after the cruel killings.

The slaying of Itazi Yolyanaye, 50, Stephen Balega, 30, Moses Mpungu, 28, at Nambale Police Station in Iganga District was one of the most savage of mob action cases registered in the recent past, and in the end it turned out that the suspects were innocent of the allegation that led to their unjustly bloody demise.

“The mob attacked the police station where they were being held on suspicion that they had something to do with the boy’s disappearance,” said the police spokesperson for Southeastern region, Mr Sam Lubega.

Musa Awile, 11, had disappeared for four days by the time his suspected abductors were killed. The boy was later found in Magamaga one month later. He told police he had been picked by the lady with whom he was currently staying, outside a restaurant.

When she took him to the LC1 to record him as a lost child, she was requested to keep him until someone came up looking for him.

This incident particularly paints a disturbing picture of injustice that provides graphic evidence of the country's descent into lawlessness.

Yet these nightmarish scenes are not unusual. Almost on a weekly basis residents are being injured or killed in similar incidences by mobs meting out their own justice as communities take the law into their own hands in the belief that they are tackling crime within their own societies.

Last year alone, 58 such cases were reported in the South Eastern Region of Uganda. The victims ranged from suspects said to have been caught stealing, practising witchcraft, or murder suspects among other crimes.

In all these executions, there was not enough evidence incriminating them of the crimes.

“Quite often the victims are people who have either been taken to police or to court and released on bond,” Mr Lubega says.

“When the public is not satisfied and there is another crime perpetrated in the community, people look at these people as criminals and see an opportunity to execute them.”

He says in general it is very possible for innocent people to become victims, but they are not given any chance to prove their innocence. “There was an incident in which an alleged suspect who was being pursued by a mob managed to escape the original group chasing him, only to point at somebody else on his way shouting ‘thief... thief’. Within minutes both the mob pursuing him and other observers had besieged this innocent man,” Lubega narrates.

But for the LC5 chairman of Jinja District, Mr Hannington Basakana, this should not even be referred to as mob "justice" since there is no justice practiced in such cases.
“The vigilantes clearly have no respect for the rule of law. People declare someone culprit and then they become judges and executioners all in one,” he says.

“This action is itself a crime that should be condemned and people should know this. The victims are not given any opportunity to defend themselves, and even if they were caught red-handed the punishment meted out on them is not commensurate to the alleged crime committed,” Mr Basakana says.

“You find chicken thieves in the villages being violently cut into pieces with machetes.”
Fr Peter MK. Mubiru, the coordinator Commission for Justice and Peace Diocese of Jinja, says the perpetrators of mob justice are shortsighted.

“When people act in this way all reason is abandoned. Mass action against an individual is sadly inadequate because it lacks the careful examination and deliberation necessary to come up with the truth and respond with appropriate action,” he says, adding that mob action is driven by strong emotions.

Again corruption in the system, delayed justice and manipulation of system by the rich and powerful have provoked mob justice in some cases, especially those involving land and property. Our system needs to work hard to improve to avoid such instances.

Additional reporting by Asuman Musobya