The High court in Kampala has ordered Government to pay 30 million shillings to a one Sam Busindi Mashereka, an NUP party official who was kidnapped and tortured by CMI operatives.
This is after Justice Musa Ssekaana ruled Mashereka’s right to freedom from torture and inhumane treatment was violated by CMI officials who inflicted pain and wounds on his body.
Mashereka at the time of his arrest was the registrar of the National Unity Platform in Kasese.
According to justice Ssekaana, upon review of the submissions and evidence presented before court, it is evident that the Mashereka has established a credible claim for the
infringement of his constitutional rights by demonstrating that he was subjected to inhumane treatment, which compromised his rights to dignity, freedom from torture, and personal liberty as safeguarded by the Constitution.
Ssekaana adds that his court recognizes that these rights are fundatamental and non-derogable, and any infringement warrants judicial remedy.
Mashereka told court that on 7th January 2022 while he playing pool with colleagues at a local pub in Kasese Town, three UPDF officers attached to CMI arrested him and brought him to Kampala where he was interrogated about NUP funders.
That later he would be clobbered and brutalised by military officers to sustain wounds which are still visible to date.
In February 2022 he narrated to court that from January 9th 2022, he spent three days handcuffed and his face hooded, he was led for interrogation before four officers who allegedly battered him with cables, flogged and waterboarded him after he had given answers to questions related to the funding and next move for NUP that the investigators found unsatisfactory.
According to Masereka, this was repeated every day until he was released on January 26th 2022, from the Special Investigations Department of Police in Kireka where CMI officers reportedly took him before being granted police bond on allegations of involving himself in subversive activities.
Today Justice Sekaana has ruled that given the gravity of the constitutional violations presented, the judge has found an award of 30,000,000 shillings as general damages to serve as both compensation for the injuries sustained and as a re-affirmation of the court’s role in upholding constitutional protections and human dignity.
Mashereka has also been awarded costs of the suit.
