President Yoweri Museveni has presided over the pass out of 2,234 prison officers who successfully completed an 18-month training program. The new cohort comprises 200 cadet assistant superintendents, 318 principal officers, and 1,716 recruit wardens.

Their addition brings the total number of prison officers in Uganda to 14,248. The increase in the number of personnel has improved the prison officer-to-inmate ratio, reducing it to one officer for every six inmates, a notable improvement from the previous one-to-eight ratio. The United Nations recommends a ratio of one officer to three inmates.

During the commissioning ceremony over the weekend, President Museveni praised the Uganda Prison Service-UPS for its dedication to maintaining internal peace and security, implementing rehabilitation and skill-building programs, and contributing to poverty alleviation through various agricultural projects.  Notably, nine of the newly commissioned officers hold engineering qualifications. President Museveni encouraged the UPS administration to leverage their skills to construct additional prison facilities, addressing the issue of overcrowding.

Furthermore, President Museveni pledged financial support to strengthen UPS projects in agriculture and manufacturing. He stressed the importance of using locally sourced raw materials and discouraged the importation of fabrics for uniform production. “I don’t care who makes the uniforms or what, but I don’t want you to become tailors importing fabrics from elsewhere and stitching clothes, claiming you are manufacturers. You should source all necessary raw materials locally, except for silk, which we do not yet produce locally,” explained the President.

The President also announced additional security measures during the same event. He ordered the fingerprint marking of all firearms in the country’s armed forces and mandated the installation of digital number plates, citing these measures as crucial for enhancing security and reducing criminal activities.

Kahinda Otafire, the Minister for Internal Affairs, called upon the President to support UPS in acquiring more agricultural machinery to bolster the parish development model and increase cotton production for the revival of the textile industry. He also expressed concern about the growing prisoner population due to accelerated judicial processes and appealed for additional support from UPS and the police to keep pace with the judiciary.

Otafire discussed plans to revise the operational framework for all armed forces, differentiating them from traditional civil servants, and addressing issues of discipline and conduct.   “As teachers hold chalk, doctors hold stereoscopes, police, UPS officers, and the like hold arms. We cannot continue treating them in the same way, these are not traditional civil servants. Now a police officer can go away and you cannot charge him with desertion. How do you deal with commandant control of a person dealing with national security, but guided by traditional civil service? The same will go for immigration officers because this is our first line of defence we are coming up with papers to review these people’s conduct,” Otafire said.

Johnson Byabashaijja, the Commissioner General of Uganda Prison Services-UPS, highlighted the significant milestone of having 14,248 officers in the service, compared to the 9,000 officers it had five years ago. Currently, UPS houses 75,340 inmates, with 52 percent being convicts and 48 percent on remand. Byabashaijja acknowledged improvements in justice delivery and emphasized the need to further reduce the number of remanded inmates. He also mentioned UPS’s engineering team’s efforts to construct new facilities to alleviate prison cell congestion, with a goal of reducing it to 25 percent by the end of the fiscal year.

In line with the national security strategy, Byabashaijja revealed UPS’s acquisition of 35,000 acres of land, with a pending receipt of 15,000 more acres. However, he cited a shortage of machinery as a challenge in implementing agricultural projects effectively.

Published: 10th September 2023

By Timothy Lumunye

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is now a global health emergency, affecting more than a billion people worldwide. In more and more countries, normal life has effectively been suspended, as sweeping measures are introduced to control the spread of the disease by way of ‘lockdowns’, bans on social gatherings, and the closure of public facilities. These measures have also had an impact on criminal justice systems, as access to courts and prisons has come under severe restrictions. The administration of justice cannot come to a total standstill, whatever the circumstances.

It is essential that the Justice, Law and Order Sector continues to carry out essential functions, including the processing of criminal cases, and safeguarding the rights and welfare of accused persons, especially those who are on remand.

The accused persons on remand should be able to participate in criminal justice proceedings in person, and it is especially crucial that they are physically present in the courtroom during trial. This is not possible currently, because of the restrictions imposed by Uganda Prisons, in line with the standard public health guidelines.  The accused absence from the courtroom seriously undermines their ability to participate in criminal justice proceedings effectively, and the exercise of the rights of the defence.

Its high time Uganda Prisons came up with measures to enable inmates on remand attend court proceedings and prevent an unprecedented backlog of cases that could harm the effective administration of justice in the future.  This can be done in a phased manner, by opening up first, less congested Prison facilities. 

The Judiciary has taken extraordinary measures to keep criminal justice systems operational, preventing lengthy delays in criminal proceedings, and ensuring that urgent matters, such pre-trial detention hearings, are not postponed. The Judiciary does not however work in a vacuum and relies on other stakeholders in the Justice, Law and Order Sector (such as Police, Prisons, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions) for it to be effective. With these stakeholders also substantially limited by the lockdown and other COVID-19 related restrictions, court business has literally ground to a halt, in as far as access to justice for accused persons on remand is concerned. 

Timothy Lumunye is a Grade 1 Magistrate at Nateete Rubaga court

Published: 24th March 2021

About 55km northwest of Kampala CBD lies Kitalya – a quiet village located in Busunju County Wakiso district. Amid Kitalya’s cascading plains and sprawling green is a towering 5-acre prison facility under construction and this is a prison project like no other. 

Welcome to Kitalya Mini-Max Prison.

Today a team from the Justice, Law and Order Sector (JLOS) led by Dr. Johnson Byabashaija, the Prisons Service Commissioner General visited the construction site to get first hand experience of the progress made so far. Accompanied by a delegation from the JLOS Secretariat, the JLOS Construction committee, ICRC, members of Parliament and a number of officials from Uganda Prisons, Dr. Byabashaija was given a guided tour of this imposing facility by the lead consultant, Arch. Enock Kibbamu from Plantek Limited.

Described by the Commissioner General as “Uganda’s first ever real post-colonial prison”, Kitalya Mini-Max easily fits this glowing description and the facts don’t lie. 

Here is a sneak peek:

Big sized prison wards and 30 cells (all fitted with modern sanitary facilities) that can accommodate up to 4,000 inmates; a fully fledged medical wing complete with an inpatient section and isolation rooms for contagious diseases; about 70 CCTV camera points and a control room (24 hour surveillance on site and offsite); modern kitchen equipped with power saving technology; classroom blocks equipped with a computer lab and library; a large workshop block specifically designed and built for prison industry activities; full-fledged sport facilities (a football pitch, volley ball court, basket ball court and lawn tennis court); a multipurpose hall; multiple watch towers; and a modern administration block.

All this (and much more) at only 18.3 bn Ushs, which is by all measures a modest, and conservative figure given the sheer volume of work and quality of workmanship on display today.

According to Hon. Doreen Ruth Amule, the Chairperson of Parliament’s Defence and Internal Affairs Committee who was part of the visiting delegation, Kitalya Mini-Max success story is one of the reasons Uganda Prisons is easily among the most highly respected institutions in Uganda. She thanked Dr. Byabashaija for his exemplary leadership and integrity without which a project of this magnitude wouldn’t have been possible.

Uganda Prisons globally ranks high thanks to its award winning rehabilitation program. At Kitalya, the prison industry workshops and educational facilities being constructed within the prison underscore UPS’ goal to rehabilitate prisoners and make them better citizens.  Like one construction project official put it to me today, “Kitalya is simply a correctional facility and not just a prison. The design features speak for themselves”.

Started in June 2016, construction is set to be completed by June 2019 but it could even be much earlier (around February 2019) thanks to the tireless efforts of the contractor (Ambitious Construction Co. Ltd), the consultant (Plantek Limited) and the Prisons project management team. 

Big tasks still remain though: to equip this prison facility and operationalize it once construction works are completed. This requires funding to procure furniture and fixtures as well as facilities for staff to manage and run the prison. 

However from today’s visit, one thing is crystal clear: Kitalya Mini-Max prison project with support from the Justice, Law and Order Sector is no doubt on course to make history and become a game changer in the war on prison congestion and the quest to take prisoner rehabilitation to a whole new level.

By Edgar Kuhimbisa / Published: 12 Nov 2018

KITALYA - Construction of the largest prisoner correctional facility in Uganda has been completed. The facility sitting at 5-acres of land situated about 55 kilometres northwest of Kampala, in Wakiso District is now ready to receive inmates, according to Dr Johnson Byabashaija, the Commissioner-General of Prisons. 

Named Kitalya Mini-Max Prison, the Shs25 billion state of the art facility was funded by the Justice, Law and Order Sector (JLOS) and constructed by Ambitious Construction Company Limited. 

It was built with large sized prison wards and 30 cells all fitted with modern sanitary facilities. It has a fully-fledged medical wing with an inpatient section, a contact visitors’ room and isolation rooms for contagious diseases, plus a kitchen equipped with power-saving technology.

The facility also has classroom blocks equipped with a computer lab and library, a large workshop block specifically designed and built for prison industry activities, fully-fledged sports facilities including a football pitch, a volleyball court, a basketball court and lawn tennis court in addition to a multipurpose hall. 

Its completion is expected to decongest Luzira upper prison, which is chocking with more than 3,000 inmates, five times above its holding capacity of 600 inmates. Dr Byabashaija observed that Kitalya Mini-Max prison is a game-changer in the war against prison congestion. 

It was built with large sized prison wards and 30 cells all fitted with modern sanitary facilities. It has a fully-fledged medical wing with an inpatient section, a contact visitors’ room and isolation rooms for contagious diseases, plus a kitchen equipped with power-saving technology.

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Published: Feb. 24 2020