I have just examined the charge sheet issued in this matter, and it is defective on its face. The defects are not technicalities; they are foundational. Together, they reveal a troubling absence of basic legal competence on the part of the Uganda Police, the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the magistrate or judiciary who sanctioned it. 

I really struggled to understand how such a document survived even the most elementary scrutiny. What, exactly, has happened to the discipline of criminal law in this country? Effect of cadre judges and prosecutors who are not hired on merit but through cronyism and patronage?

The magistrate’s endorsement of this charge reflects a profound failure of judicial responsibility. Courts are not rubber stamps; they are constitutional filters. They have a duty to reject such stupid charges that are legally incoherent, vague, and internally inconsistent. Approving a charge sheet of this nature is not neutrality. It is an abdication of judicial obligations. The magistrate must be ashamed.

This charge is not merely weak. It is legally defective, procedurally careless, and symptomatic of a system that treats criminal law as paperwork rather than a discipline governed by precision, evidence, and accountability.

The context makes matters worse. When Dr Lina Zedriga Waru was abducted and forcibly disappeared, her family filed an application for habeas corpus before the High Court. In response, the State, acting through the Attorney General, filed sworn affidavits denying any knowledge of her whereabouts.

She has now been produced before the very same courts by the very same State actors who previously swore, on oath, that they did not know where she was. These two positions cannot coexist in law. One of them is false.

This raises unavoidable questions. Where are the laws on perjury in this country, and against whom are they enforced? Who will be subpoenaed to account for sworn falsehoods placed before the High Court? And who will answer for the violation of Dr Lina Zedriga Waru’s constitutional rights arising from her unlawful detention, enforced disappearance, and subsequent production as an accused person? Those who produced her in court should have been arrested on the spot, charged with abduction and contempt of court, and sentenced immediately.

Photo Credit: Konrad Hirsch