A total of 1600 who had been recommended by prisons have missed out on President Museveni’s pardon under the prerogative of mercy window.
The constitution of Uganda empowers the president to pardon prisoners on advice of the prerogative of mercy committee and the Attorney General.
In an August, 20 letter to prisons, the president indicated that in exercise of the powers vested in him by Article 121(1) (a) of the Constitution and on the advice of the committee on the prerogative of mercy, he had pardoned 200 prisoners.
Among those pardoned is former Ministry of Public Service Permanent Secretary, Jimmy Lwamafa who was sentenced to seven years in 2018 after being convicted of a number of charges ranging from conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to commit a felony and forgery of judicial documents by the Anti-Corruption Court in the infamous shs165 billion pension scam case.
According to the prisons spokesperson, Frank Baine, the 200 were pardoned on humanitarian grounds and were part of the 1800 prisoners recommended for pardon to the committee on prerogative of mercy in the different prisons across the country.
“We submitted up to 1800 names for pardon including all the prisoners on death row who have finished their appeal process, all petty offenders who have finished 50% of their sentences, pregnant and suckling mothers that have finished 50% of their cases, the elderly who have also finished 50% of their sentences and the terminally sick who have finished at least a quarter of their sentences,” Baine said.
He noted that in assessment the committee looked at their recommendation and only 200 were recommended to the president for pardon.
“It is the committee’s discretion to forward those to the president for pardon. This is a total pardon and all are going home.”
Baine noted that there are many forms of pardon including one where a prisoner on death row has it changed to a term of imprisonment like 10 or 15 years according to the wish of the president.
