At least 44 people were on Thursday sentenced by the Kasese
Magistrate’s Court for encroaching on a forest reserve. There were tears
as some of them were handed a five-week jail sentence for encroaching
on Mubuku Forest reserve.
The 44 people pleaded guilty before Grade One
Magistrate Patrick Bamuhiga. They were arrested at the weekend for
illegally partitioning 1,662 acres of the forest reserve located in
Maliba Sub-county.
Some wives and children of the accused endured the
mid-morning rain to protest before court but police deployed to kick
them out of the court premises.
The magistrate, who had already made a ruling on
Tuesday, went on to sentence 21 men to five weeks imprisonment. He also
sentenced 19 others, who included women and elderly men, to one month of
community service at the Rukoki and Bugoye health centres III.
Four people who included three juveniles and a
disabled man were sentenced to caution. Their lawyer, Mr Geoffrey
Sibendire, had earlier on asked court to give his clients a
non-custodial sentence because they acted out of desperation over the
scarcity of land in the district. But the presiding magistrate concurred
with the state prosecutor, Mr Mike Mwanje, to hand the men a custodial
sentence of five weeks to deter people who wants to grab government
land.
According to Section 32 (2) of the National
Forestry and Tree Planting Act 2003, a person convicted of encroaching
on a forest serves three years in jail or pays a fine not less than
Shs600,000.
