Category Archives: Students

UCU Law students help Uganda fight prison case backlogs

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Uganda Christian University Law alumnus and International Justice Mission advocate, Conrad Oroya Obol (third right), shakes hand with Uganda’s Chief Justice, Bart Katurebe (left), during the launch of a plea-bargaining week in Gulu, Uganda, in June.

By Olum Douglas

In August 2016, a court sitting in Kampala, presided over by high-court judge, Wilson Masalu Musene, sent Stephen Kato, a 26-year-old married man, to a 10-year jail term for raping a 60-year-old woman.

Many Ugandans thought the sentence was too lenient. They went wild over the social media, condemning the judge for what they termed “bias,” given the fact that the country’s Penal Code Act (Section 124) prescribes a death sentence for a convicted rapist.

But the sentence was a product of an initiative by the judiciary, the plea bargain, through which the convict pleaded guilty instead of going through a trial, thus saving the court time and resources.

Plea bargain is an initiative in the criminal justice system where the defendant enters an agreement with the prosecution to plead guilty in exchange for the prosecutor to drop one or more charges, reduce a charge to a less serious offense, or recommend to the judge a specific sentence without going through normal court procedures. Once a deal is struck, the prosecutor, together with the advocate, presents the signed agreement with proposed punishment before the magistrate who either approves or rejects it.

In Uganda, the judiciary adopted the plea bargain initiative in 2015 to try and reduce the challenge of case backlogs that have proven a great menace to the justice system in the country. The problem is mostly attributed to inadequate human and financial resources in the judiciary.

A Justice Law and Order Sector January 2018 report revealed that many people continued to languish in the prisons with case files unattended. In one of the worst case scenarios, three suspects facing capital offences were forgotten in prison, after a judge adjourned their cases to the next convenient session, which only came after a decade of waiting.

Eliminating backlogs like these is where Uganda Christian University (UCU) Law students come in.

Students of UCU, through a partnership with the Christian-based Pepperdine University in California, help bridge the gap. Since the adoption of the initiative four years ago, students pursuing the Bachelor of Laws at UCU have been participating in the processes that include: studying files of accused persons, especially those facing charges of capital offences; examining accused persons; counselling prisoners; and bargaining for them.

Mirriam Achieng, a lecturer at the UCU Faculty of Law, said the students’ participation is part of a requirement for a course, Clinical Legal Education, where students must carry out projects and have hands-on experience of justice delivery.

In 2018, the initiative saw at least 600 cases disposed within five working days. This year, a report published by PML Daily Correspondent, a Uganda-based, online publication, revealed that at least 300 cases were disposed of in Northern Uganda’s Gulu area alone during a week-long, Plea-Bargaining Prison Camp held in the district in June.

The Uganda Judiciary Services body organizes the camp. Accused persons in prisons are sensitized, registered for the process, and their files are shared with the students for assessment and prior preparations. The students then meet the accused persons, listen to their issues and counsel them about the rights they will forego should they opt for a plea bargain. They also prepare the accused persons for the process, and participate in the negotiations until a final agreement is reached.

The down side is that sometimes prisoners plead guilty and serve their sentences in order to end anxiety and the uncertainly of whether they will be tried or not, even when they are sure that they did not commit the crime for which they are being accused.

Achieng says the students’ participation in the program has not only helped future lawyers in research and dissertation writing, but also gained for them connections with their colleagues from Pepperdine as well as attorneys and other legal minds from the United States of America.

Through this participation, UCU students have contributed towards reducing case backlogs, decongesting prisons, reducing anxiety among prisoners and enabling the accused persons to participate in determining their own punishments.

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To learn more about the UCU Law program, go to http://ucu.ac.ug/academics/faculties/faculty-of-law. To support UCU students, programs and facilities, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at mtbartels@gmail.com.

UCU student mixes entrepreneurship with artistry

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Onyong Yubu Prince, a student in UCU Journalism, Communication and Media Studies

By Patty Huston-Holm

Creativity and resourcefulness have long been part of life for Onyong Yubu Prince. So, for the gospel singer-turned university student, it was only natural that he should jump at the chance to do something new – like writing children’s books.

He is one of more than 300 Uganda Christian University (UCU) students and staff members who were engaged in the UCU Literature Department mother tongue translation project – an initiative designed to enhance literacy and increase excitement for reading and writing among Ugandan children. At the end of 2018, nearly 700 stories had been translated into 26 mostly-Ugandan languages.

Onyong, a student in UCU Journalism, Communication and Media Studies, wrote one of those stories. It was entitled “How to become what I want.” After that, he translated somebody else’s story called “Arrow of God.” Lastly, he wrote a final book entitled “Satan is a lazy man,” which became popular in a short amount of time. Within a few months, he sold more than 200 paperback books for 8,000 Ugandan shillings (around $2.25 American) each.

Onyong, age 24, acknowledged his success is as much about his overall reputation as it is his literary talent.

“I’m famous in northern Uganda,” he stated. “I have been a gospel singer since age 17, writing and performing my own songs.”

His notoriety is connected to his appearance and his talent. He openly discusses his size. He is small in stature and will remain so throughout his life – the result of a birth defect caused, he said, by medicine given his mother before she gave birth. It has hindered relationships with some.

“I am still discriminated against because I look smaller than most people, but it doesn’t bother me,” Onyong said. “God loves me, and He wants me to prove to others that I can achieve through what He has created in me.”

Onyong’s success also is about social media. With Facebook “friends” at a maximum of 5,000 per account, he has three Facebook pages. From there, he makes connections for performances and has made contacts to sell books in English, Lango and Acholi languages to schools and children ages 10 and below.

Onyong is uncertain where his career will take him when he receives his bachelor’s degree this October, but he is hopeful about getting a television anchor job.

His favorite scripture is I Corinthians 1:7, which addresses shaming the powerful. It gives him courage.

“I have accepted Jesus as my personal Savior,” he said. “He always answers my prayers.”

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To learn more about the UCU mother tongue translation project, go to https://www.ugandapartners.org/2018/10/mother-tongue-translation-project-elevates-literacy-for-ugandas-children/.  To support UCU students, programs and facilities, go to www.ugandapartners.org and click on the “donate” button or contact UCU Partners Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at mtbartels@gmail.com.