Terror suspects held in Uganda give notice of hunger strike

Thursday, November 21, 2013

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Six Kenyans who are being held in Uganda over the 2010 Kampala bombings are among 12 detainees who have given notice of a hunger strike to protest the delay of their cases.

According to Muslim Human Rights Forum (MHRF) chairman Al-Amin Kimathi, those who have given notice of a hunger strike include Omar Awadh Omar, Idris Magondu, Habib Suleiman Njoroge, Hussein Hassan Agade, Yahya Suleiman Mbuthia and Mohamed Ali Mohamed.

“The 12 have now served notice of their intention to go on a hunger strike beginning next Monday,” Mr Kimathi said.

He said the six Kenyans who are being held at the Luzira Upper Prison are on a go-slow, protesting the delay of their case that has been pending before the courts since they were formally charged in 2011.

The six men have been in remand custody since then, awaiting hearing of a constitutional application they filed in the Ugandan Constitutional Court in September 2011.

The 2011 suit was to challenge their criminal trial, which was then stayed to await the outcome of the application.

DETENTION WITHOUT BEING TRIED

Together with four Ugandans and a Tanzanian, the Kenyans are accusing the state of deliberately delaying the hearing of the petition to ensure their prolonged detention without being tried.

They claim that their efforts to have the hearing expedited or to be granted bail pending the determination of the cases have been frustrated by the State.

They say the only time they had been set to appear in court for the hearing of the constitutional matter, on October 17, it was called off in unclear circumstances which have not been explained to them or to their lawyers to date.

“These are justifiable acts of desperation. The detainees have been abandoned by their own government and subjected to lengthy disguised detention-without-trial by the other. The delays are deliberately executed by the state in the absence of evidence to sustain prosecution,” Mr Kimathi said.

He added that due to the delay and lengthy incarceration the suspects’ health has deteriorated.

“According to families of the detainees who visited them yesterday, the go-slow involves refusal to perform personal chores like exercises and games, bathing and conforming to prison routine and instead sitting in their cells all the time they are supposed to be out,” Mr Kimathi said.

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