We need to impose martial law to fight corruption, says Gen David Sejusa
According to Sejusa, martial Law is distinct from the usual Military Justice System of Court Martials and in this case, the Civil Authority is suspended and Military Authority is Imposed on the whole Population.
Former Minister of State for Defense and coordinator of intelligence agencies General David Sejusa has proposed that for corruption to be erased from Uganda, martial law should be implemented for at least one year.
According to Sejusa, martial Law is distinct from the usual Military Justice System of Court Martials and in this case, the Civil Authority is suspended and Military Authority is Imposed on the whole Population.
The former minister of state for defense highlighted that if corruption in Uganda has reached crisis levels and assumed emergency dimensions, then martial law would be the best solution to save the country.
“We can make a hybrid arrangement where some judges of the Supreme Court could be co-opted, but the law and procedures followed will be guided by Military Law. Summary procedure codes, etc. We can discuss the details,” he added while explaining who would be the perfect person to implement this.
Despite citing martial law as one of the solutions to fighting and eliminating corruption in Uganda, Sejusa said this can be used for maximum effect, but also declaring a “state of emergency” in other countries and parts of the world, this has been implemented like western democracies.
In cases of a state of emergency, Sejusa noted that this will contribute to overriding many provisions of the constitutions and fundamental rights of citizens to solve crises.
Explaining the state of emergency doctrine, Sejusa said, “Governments using extraordinary measures to manage crises is not a modern-day concept. It can be traced to ancient Greece where the Greeks vested absolute powers, in an elected person they termed “elected tyrant”, to exercise these sweeping powers, for temporary period,”
He added, “This Doctrine is also seen in what’s known as the institution of the Roman dictatorship which spanned 300 years of the Roman Republic (related to the Roman Law Doctrine of “iustitium”),”
Sejusa further explained that however much these practices may work; they were misused by Imperialism in its plunder and were a Key Policy Weapon by Colonialists.
He added that it’s not a policy Africans should take pride in, especially if it’s not about natural disasters, but for political reasons.
Martial law is the replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers.
On Transparency International’s 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, Uganda scored 26 on a scale from 0 (“highly corrupt”) to 100 (“very clean”). When ranked by score, Uganda ranked 142nd among the 180 countries in the Index, where the country ranked last is perceived to have the most corrupt public sector.
