Ugandan Court Releases 32 Kenyan Teens in Cross-Border Firearms Case

A Ugandan martial court has released 32 Kenyan teenagers who were previously sentenced to 20 years in prison for possessing illegal firearms.

The teenagers, apprehended in Moroto District with a significant amount of ammunition, claimed they acted in self-defence against cattle raiders. While initially found guilty and sentenced by a lower court, the teenagers' fate changed upon appeal. Their lawyer Soita Jessy successfully argued that the original sentencing had significant irregularities. Crucially, Jessy emphasized that the teenagers were all minors and should not have been tried as adults. Medical examinations confirmed their ages prompting the appeals court to overturn the initial ruling. The original sentence of 20 years was based on separate 10-year terms for both possessing firearms and ammunition without a license.

Colonel Bernard Arinaitwe Tuhame, who presided over the first trial, emphasized the severity of the offence while highlighting the loss of life and property associated with illegal firearms. However, the appeals court has found the lower court's decision flawed as it disregarded the mitigating factor of the teenagers' age and relied solely on the prosecution's evidence. The appeals court judge Brigadier General Court Freeman Mugabe deemed a retrial unnecessary taking into account the year and thirteen days the teenagers spent in lawful custody along with the period they served under the overturned sentence.

This decision brings the case to a close, with the teenagers now released. The East African Community Treaty establishes a framework for mutual legal assistance including the extradition of criminal suspects. However, the agreement's applicability to prisoner exchange remains unclear. This ambiguity has created friction, particularly regarding the arrest and prosecution of individuals accused of cross-border crimes. In April 2023, the brutal murders of three Ugandan geologists and their UPDF escorts in Lotisan Sub-County, Uganda, sparked a forceful response.

Ugandan troops crossed the border into Kenya, apparently in pursuit of the perpetrators, believed to be armed herdsmen who fled after the attack. The porous borders between Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, and Somalia have long facilitated the illegal flow of firearms. These weapons end up in the hands of cattle raiders, fueling a surge in violent cross-border raids that plague the Karamoja and Turkana regions of both countries.