Harsh Realities

by Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (April 30th 2015)

Wronged

Mpagi Edward Edmary was living a nightmare not of his making. He had survived the tyrannical régimes of Milton Obote and Idi Amin only to fall victim to a despicable injustice. He was convicted of the worst type of offence – one that had not occurred. He was alleged to have murdered William Wandyaka. His cousin Fred Masembe had also been wrongly convicted in April 1982.

But this was no ordinary injustice. Wandyaka had not been murdered by Edmary or Masembe and it was no accident either. Unbelievably, Wandyaka had manipulated the law to further a dispute with Edmaryʼs family. It beggars belief that Wandyaka was in fact alive and well throughout this shameful miscarriage of justice.

Less than a year and a half after they were convicted of the crime they had not committed – they had believed that these things did not happen – the pair had lost their appeal too. The death sentence – a mandatory one – had been confirmed. They applied for the prerogative of mercy, but no mercy was displayed either. And to make matters worse malaria had considerably weakened Masembe. Denied medication he died in August 1985.

Harsh Realities

Edmary faced a huge fight on his own. Edmary had to take on and beat the utterly corrupt system that had wronged him, but he had some hope. The régime that had dispensed rotten justice had failed again. Obote II, was if anything, more brutal and corrupt than his first government.

A month before Masembeʼs tragic death Obote was once again overthrown by a military coup led by Brigadier Bazilio Olara-Okello and General Tito Okello. They established a Military Council which lasted a few months before Yoweri Museveniʼs National Resistance Army swept it from power. The Military Council did nothing to address the injustice suffered by Edmary and Masembe, even though they were victims of a corrupt judicial process.

Obote had already fled to Tanzania and then to Zambia. Meanwhile, Oboteʼs Vice President, Paulo Muwanga, would soon taste the harsh realities of prison life. After the coup he was arrested. Museveni came to power in 1986. He has been in power in Uganda ever since. Muwanga died in 1991. His fall from power had been catastrophic.

After Museveni came to power Muwangaʼs victims voiced their discontent. It resulted in Muwangaʼs arrest and later convictions. Muwanga was the star witness before the Uganda Human Rights Commission under Justice Arthur Oder in 1988. He defended his record. Sadly, Justice Oderʼs Commission did not consider the appalling abuse of the human rights of Fred Masembe and the ongoing injustice that Edmary had to fight without his cousin by his side any longer.

A Lone Furrow

Nobody had committed the ʻmurderʼ that Masembe had died over and Edmary was enduring a living death, wondering when the executioners would come for him. They were both innocent and the case was no accident either. Edmaryʼs amazing story that not only were he and Masembe innocent, but that there had been no crime, was proved true.

Edmary was adamant that Wandyakaʼs family had taken a callous revenge on his for the dispute by framing him and his cousin for a murder that never happened. Wandyaka, he insisted, was in fact alive and well, savouring this inhuman revenge. Edmary claims that he even saw Wandyaka attend the trial, relishing their ordeal.

It took many years and considerable luck, but eventually a Presidential Commission established that Edmary was innocent. There was no means to adequately right the wrong. Wandyaka was alive and well. It was clearly unconscionable to keep Edmary in jail, so on July 20th 2000 – over 19 years after his ordeal began – Mpagi Edward Edmary was released by Presidential Pardon.

A Change is Gonna Come

It remains an egregious miscarriage of justice that shames Uganda despite Museveniʼs government belatedly putting it right. Oboteʼs criminal justice system had proved itself to be venal, corrupt and vicious. It also allowed itself to be used in a dispute. It allowed two innocent men to have their lives wrecked or taken when their ʻvictimʼ was in fact alive and well throughout.

This is Ugandaʼs difference-making injustice – the case from which a competent and just criminal justice system can emerge through its own Truth and Justice Commission. Uganda must seize that chance and shame those jurisdictions that talk about truth and justice, but fail to deliver, despite a plethora of worthy cases.

It must do so in the best interests of the Ugandan people. They deserve to know that the ordeals suffered by Fred Masembe and Mpagi Edward Edmary were not in vain and that from the entrails of this abominable injustice a fair and just system system will emerge. The Fitted-In Project is committed to playing its part in facilitating that process in Uganda.

For more information on the school that is Mpagiʼs passion and how to help him keep his dream alive see http://dreamoneworld.org/