Parliament Committee Report: No evidence of torture in Nalufenya but well fed and clean suspects

By Watchdog reporter

Parliament on Tuesday failed to agree whether there is torture or not at the infamous Nalufenya detention centre.

The Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights which was tasked to handle the matter and report back to the House submitted that they found no evidence of torture at Nalufenya and that the suspects they interacted with were well fed.

The Chair of the Human Rights Committee Jovah Kamateeka said in the report that, “The facility appeared reasonably very clean. There was hardly any overt evidence of torture.”

The report which however has a dissenting voice, said the facility on average holds less than 50 inmates, noting that the committee found only 21 suspects on the day they visited. She added that as soon as suspects are put on trial, inmates are transferred to Luzira Prison within a period of one week.

“The committee could not establish whether there had been overcrowding or not or whether those transferred had been tortured at the facility,” Kamateeka stated, adding, ““On the day of the visit, the committee found 21 suspects all of whom were male except one.”

However Kilak North MP Anthony Akol was not happy with the report of colleagues and came up with a minority views report. Akol said the Parliament committee was fooled and showed a well organised police facility because they had informed the managers about their visit.

“The medical records book revealed that many suspects were being treated with conditions like soft tissues injury, open wounds, wounds, and pain in ankle joints as well as bruises and physical deformations,” Akol said, demanding that Parliament should close Nalufenya detention facility for gross abuse of rights including torture to suspects. Nalufenya camp which was gazetted as a police detention facility in 1954, before Uganda got its independence in 1962, has been in the news for torture since the death of AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi.

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