the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) continued to advocate the abolition of the death penalty

the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) continued to advocate the abolition of the death penalty in Uganda and called upon the state to abolish capital punishment for all crimes. 
"Everywhere experience has shown that executions brutalise those involved in the process. Nowhere is it written that the death penalty has any special power to reduce crimes. It is common knowledge that capital punishment is nothing less than state-sanctioned murder. Everywhere experience has shown that executions brutalise those involved in the process.
Nowwhere is it written that the death penalty has any special power to reduce crime or political violence," said Margaret Sekagya, the chairperson, FHRI. She believed it is used disproportionately against the poor and minority groups as a tool of political repression.
Uganda's penal code provides for 15 capital offences: nine separate offences grouped under the collective heading “treason” and offences against the state, rape, defilement, murder, aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping.
Death is a mandatory punishment for six of the treasonous offences and a discretionary sentence for the remaining felonies at the same go. The death penalty has been highly politicised in Uganda. It is particularly troubling that more than half of the capital offences are related to treasonous acts. The president has in the past used his constitutional powers of clemency in a clearly arbitrary and political fashion. Ironically, Article 24 of the constitution of Uganda prohibits the infliction of "torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
But capital punishment involves both physical and mental torture. In Uganda, executions are carried out by hanging. The prisoner is made to hang from a rope tied around the neck and is killed by the force of the rope exerted against the body as the body falls.
Unconsciousness and death are brought about by damage to the spinal code or if that is insufficient, by asphyxiation due to constriction of the trachea. However, whether the prisoner loses consciousness immediately through trauma to the spinal code, or more slowly through strangulation, depends on the technique employed. Hanging which brings about quick death requires skill and experience.
Miscalculations resulting in either slow death by asphyxiation or the severing of the head from the neck are not uncommon. Executions in Uganda are not supervised by human rights monitors and therefore the FHRI is unaware of the kind and quality of training received by the hangmen.
"The physical pain caused by death cannot be quantified, neither can the psychological suffering which accompanies the fore knowledge of death at the hands of the state," says Omara Aliro, a commissioner with Uganda Human Rights commission. Many condemned prisoners in Uganda have remained on Luzira's death row in excess of 10 years. There are even some men who have been waiting to die since the late 70s! One wonders how government can continue to espouse the death penalty's uniquely deterrent effect, when most capital offenders are dying in prison of natural causes.
The psychological suffering which accompanies a protracted stay on death row has been identified as the "death row phenomenon."
Such extended waiting is violative of the right to freedom from cruel and inhuman treatment. the pain of such long waits is greatly exacerbated by the deplorable conditions of Luzira death row. At least 250 condemned prisoners share cell space originally designed to house only 60.