The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) together with REDEEM International (“REDEEM”) on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (“MoU”) to effectively handle land grabbing cases in Uganda.
In the MoU, the two are to work hand in hand to identify, investigate and prosecute selected property-grabbing-related crimes and the maximization of the ODPP’s capacity and constructive impact in the prosecution of land crimes.
While signing the MoU, Mr Greg Tarrant, Chief Operating Officer REDEEM noted that the safety of orphans, widows and vulnerable people is the most important thing the justice system can guarantee.
He noted that the vision of the ODPP is to ensure a crime-free society. Therefore, in order to bolster ODPP’s capacity to achieve that vision, REDEEM has undertaken to ensure that Prosecutors have access to all relevant documents, witnesses and information, and to support legal research and trial preparation. REDEEM has also undertaken to conduct customized pieces of training in order to enhance the capacity of Prosecutors to prosecute property-grabbing-related crimes more proficiently.
The Director of Public Prosecutions Jane Frances Abodo appreciated the partnership saying, “Land crimes cases form the highest percentage of cases we handle, and this is worrying because these land disputes more often than not result in the commission of other crimes as serious as murder and unlawful evictions. Land crimes are a boiling pot of most of the offences in Uganda thus once we tackle them, we shall have put a dent in a wide range of criminal practices in Uganda.”
She highlighted that the ODPP is doing a tremendous job in prosecuting land-related cases and defending the rights of vulnerable persons amidst many and varied constraints such as limited resources, inadequate staff and the need to retool the capacity of the ODPP.
Ms Juliet Nafuna Musoke the National Director of REDEEM International said, “We hope to partner with ODPP staff in our respective locations which include Gulu, Mbale, Iganga and Wakiso.”
Land grabbing is some of the great challenges, the justice system is facing where a lot of people have lost their lands to rich tycoons who at times connive with some of the Judicial Officers.
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