Kenya Insights

Tag: Military court

  • Museveni Signs Law Allowing Military Courts To Try Civilians

    Museveni Signs Law Allowing Military Courts To Try Civilians

    Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has signed legislation that allows military courts to try civilians, coming months after the country’s Supreme Court ruled that opposition leader Kizza Besigye’s treason case must be transferred from a military tribunal to a civilian one.

    The apex court banned the practice in January, terming it unconstitutional. The court’s decision angered President Museveni who called it “a wrong decision”.

    Soon after, the government drafted the contentious UPDF (Amendment) Bill, 2025 which seeks to subject civilians to military law, which the Ugandan Parliament passed last month.

    Now, with President Museveni signing the Bill into law, it grants the military courts sweeping powers to try civilians under certain circumstances, a move that critics say contradicts the January 31, 2025, Supreme Court ruling.

    The ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) MPs on May 20, 2025 passed the Bill seeking to return civilians to be tried in the army courts, but failed to clear up fuzzy clauses on what defines exceptional circumstances for their trial and what should be considered a military attire, as Opposition members walked out in protest.

    Hours after passing of the Bill, Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, lauded the MPs and “friendly opposition” legislators for preventing “a serious collision between the army, Parliament, and the courts of law” if it had not been passed.

    “I want to congratulate the Members of Parliament for passing the UPDF Amendment Bill. There was going to be a serious problem because some people were saying if a soldier does commit a crime such as killing a person, involving in theft or rapes a woman, they should be taken to the sub county (civilian courts) instead of the court martial. Those who were involved have to repent. There was going to be a serious collision between the army, parliament, and the courts of law, but they have saved us the embarrassment,” President Museveni said on May 21.

    (Daily Monitor)

  • Ugandan Government Offers to Drop Military Trial of Kizza Besigye

    Ugandan Government Offers to Drop Military Trial of Kizza Besigye

    Uganda’s government has offered to drop the military trial of opposition leaderKizza Besigye, who has been on a hunger strike since February 10 in protest of his detention.

    The 68-year-old Besigye, a former ally of President Yoweri Museveni, is facing treason charges for allegedly threatening “national security.”

    Despite the Supreme Court ruling that civilians should not be tried in military courts, the government had initially planned to proceed with a court martial.

    However, on Sunday, February 16, 2025, cabinet spokesman Chris Baryomunsi announced that the government would transfer Besigye’s case to a civil court under the court’s ruling.

    Baryomunsi, who visited Besigye in prison alongside his doctors, urged him to end his hunger strike while the transfer is processed.

    The army, which had previously ignored the Supreme Court ruling, has yet to comment on the development.

    Besigye’s health has raised alarm, with his wife, Winnie Byanyima, expressing deep concern for his condition.

    Besigye was seen in court on Thursday looking frail, prompting calls from international organisations for the protection of political opposition in Uganda ahead of the 2026 elections.

    Amnesty International condemned the trial as a “travesty of justice” and highlighted the increasing repression of political figures in the country.

  • Museveni Pledges To Continue Using Military Courts Despite Ban

    Museveni Pledges To Continue Using Military Courts Despite Ban

    Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni said on Saturday his government would continue to prosecute civilians in military tribunals even after the country’s top court banned the practice, ruling it unconstitutional.

    In a majority decision on Friday, the east African country’s Supreme Court banned prosecutions of civilians in military courts and ordered all ongoing cases there to be transferred to civil courts.

    The ruling was hailed by key opposition figure Kizza Besigye’s lawyer as offering him some relief during an ongoing trial by the country’s general court martial.

    In a statement to the media on Saturday, Museveni described the court’s decision as wrong and said military prosecutions reinforce the civil courts and had helped in pacifying Karamoja, a region in Uganda’s northeast plagued by armed violence.

    “The country is not governed by the judges,” he said. “The military courts helped us to discipline Karamoja. We cannot and will not abandon this useful instrument for stability.”

    Human rights activists and opposition politicians have long accused Museveni’s government of using military courts to prosecute opposition leaders and supporters on politically motivated charges.

    While civilian court judges are independent, military court officials are appointed by the president.

    Ugandan pop star turned opposition leader Bobi Wine has previously been prose in a military court over weapons offences.

    Besigye, a longtime opponent of Museveni, was detained in neighbouring Kenya in November and brought back to Uganda to be charged with several weapons and security offences in the general court martial.

    He has been held in detention since and was due to reappear in court on Monday, but his lawyers said after the ruling on Friday that he now would not do so.

    In power since 1986, Museveni has not openly stated whether he would seek re-election at the polls next year although he is widely expected to do so.

  • Museveni Defends Trials For Civilians In Military Courts

    Museveni Defends Trials For Civilians In Military Courts

    Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, 80, has defended the use of military courts to try civilians – following an outcry over the arrest and trial of opposition leader Kizza Besigye.

    His 68-year-old rival has been charged in a military court with possession of pistols and attempting to purchase weapons abroad – accusations he denies.

    Besigye, who was abducted while visiting Kenya last month and forcibly taken to Uganda, found out on Tuesday that he would be spending Christmas in custody as his trial has been delayed until January.

    Museveni said any crime involving a gun was dealt with in a military court to ensure the country’s stability as civilian courts took too long to deal with cases.

    Hundreds of civilians have been tried in Uganda’s military courts, even though the Constitutional Court has ruled against the practice.

    “I have seen the arguments in the papers by some lawyers regarding the correctness of some civilians being tried in the Court Martial,” .

    He said his National Resistance Movement (NRM) party had enacted a law through parliament in 2005 to allow the use of military courts because of the “rampant activities of criminals and terrorists that were using guns to kill people indiscriminately”.

    “The civilian courts were clogged with the many court cases of the whole country: murders, rape, assaults, robbery, land matters, divorce matters etc, etc. They could, therefore, not handle these gun-wielding criminals quickly. Yet, for stabilization you need speed,” he said.

    Besigye has objected to being tried by a court-martial, saying that if there were any charges against him, he should be tried in a civilian court.

    A fierce rival of Museveni, he has contested and lost four presidential elections against Uganda’s leader, who has been in power since 1986.

    He has been less active in politics in the last couple of years and did not contest the 2021 election.

    The veteran politician – who was once Museveni’s personal doctor – has been arrested dozens of times in Uganda but never convicted.

    Earlier this year he announced he was returning to the political fray to help sort out his party, which has split into two factions.

    Activists and rights groups have rallied behind him, condemning his treatment as unfair.

    “Civilians tried in Uganda’s military courts do not receive the same due process guarantees as those in civilian courts,” UN human rights chief Volker Türk said.

    There are reports that his arrest had been planned for months.

    Human Rights Watch has urged the Ugandan government to end the “weaponization of military detention” and the trial of political opposition leaders and their supporters.

    But Museveni said the East African nation was justified in using court martials.

    He ended his statement with this praise for them: “You have made your own contribution to our peace.”