What is a life worth in Uganda's courts?

Two recent decisions from the civil division of Uganda’s high court provide an interesting contrast. International media have picked up on one of them, in which a man was arrested by police, “violently beaten” by them and then taken to the cells where he was found dead next morning. The other, given virtually no publicity, concerns a man who was unlawfully held for four days in detention and then spent the next four years, on bond, forced to report regularly to police, before his bond was cancelled and the whole issue collapsed. Which case do you think won the higher damages award by the court?

Landmark defamation ruling clarifies standard for media 

A Zambian TV journalist has won his defamation case against his own bosses, 10 years after the station carried repeated broadcasts showing his arrest outside the studio for allegedly raping a teenager. The judgment by the country’s highest court gives legal finality to the matter, but also provided an opportunity for the court to re-state the standards by which it will consider a defence against defamation. The case involved a young girl, who claimed she desperately needed overnight accommodation. The journalist offered her space for the night, but the next day she told the station bosses that he had raped her. Without calling him in to ask his side of the story, officials contacted the police and stage-managed his arrest on camera. The court also heard that the girl was taken for a medical examination by another journalist but though the results could have been obtained, the TV station either did not do so, or knew the results – showing the girl had not been raped – and did not mention this in its report on the arrest.

"Contemptuous" report on planned major coal power plant dismissed by Kenya's environmental tribunal

In one of the most significant victories ever won by Kenya’s community and environmental activists, the National Environmental Tribunal has cancelled the licence for a controversial Chinese-funded coal power plant due to be erected near the town of Lamu, next to the sea. Among the sharp criticisms of the developers by the Tribunal was its failure to carry out proper community consultations.

In their own words ...

Whose responsibility to notice that not all elements of a crime are proved?

Wilson v Uganda

Court of Appeal, Uganda

Court of Appeal judges FMB Egonda-Ntende, Hellen Obura and Christopher Madrama

This case of aggravated robbery concerns several accused convicted in 2011 and sentenced to 26 years. On appeal, the court pointed out that theft of the money from the complainant had not been proved by the prosecution. The judges set aside conviction and sentence in relation to the theft of money and reduced sentence to 10 years and six months. The court seems to have put blame on counsel for the accused, named by the court, for not noticing that the theft offence was not proved. But should the trial judge not equally have noticed the problem?
 
Before we take leave of this matter, we must observe that the appellant was poorly represented at the trial which denied him the right to a fair hearing as guaranteed under … the Constitution. Had his counsel … pointed out to court that the ingredient of theft of Ushs 300,000/= had not been proved by the prosecution beyond reasonable doubt and that the evidence on record was not sufficient to support a conviction of aggravated robbery, the trial judge would not have convicted the appellant of that offence whose maximum penalty is death. It is incumbent upon every counsel to fully and ably represent his client well, especially in criminal trials where the rights and freedom of an accused person are at stake.
 

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Africa’s biggest free trade agreement is about to get an enormous boost with news that Nigeria will sign up later this month. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement is already being hailed as a scheme that could see vast benefits for all the countries involved. News that Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, has agreed to join, brings even more power to the agreement. Taking to Twitter to signal his intention, Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, said trade was important to Nigeria and that his country’s position was “very simple”: “we support free trade as long as it is fair and conducted on an equitable basis”. AfCFTA is ultimately intended to bring the 54 members of the African Union into a massive single market, removing trade barriers across the continent. Read the aims, legal texts and policy documents here.

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