There are over 200 prisoners on death row in Uganda

There are over 200 prisoners on death row in Uganda. Apollo Makubuya, a human rights researcher, told the Constitutional Review Commission that 55 prisoners were hanged in the last 10 years for murder, rape or aggravated robbery.
Quoting prisons officials and Amnesty International reports, Makubuya said 30 prisoners previously condemned to death were also pardoned in the last 10 years.
Makubuya, also a lecturer in law at Makerere University, said in May 2000, the number of prisoners on remand at Luzira Maximum Upper Prison facing capital charges was over 1,900. The majority of these were being held on charges of rape and defilement.
Capital offences include murder, rape, defilement and treason. He said 270 prisoners had already been sentenced to death and were awaiting "the hangman's rope".
Makubuya said the highest number of executions in the last 10 years was in 1999 when 28 prisoners were hanged for murder. These included Hajji Musa Sebirumbi, William Bataringaya, Emmanuel Kasujja and Leo Mwebaza.
In the same year saw the highest number of clemency cases - 13 - recorded in the last 10 years. Three prisoners were hanged in 1989, nine in 1991, 12 in 1992, three in 1996 and 28 in 1999.Makubuya said the death sentence should be scrapped from Uganda's law books because it violates the right to life and had failed to act as a deterrent. Research showed that incidences of crime were on the rise despite the retention of the death penalty, he said.
Makubuya said cases of rape and defilement had been on the rise since the 1990s when they were made capital offences.
He said the world was moving from seeking revenge to reforming and rehabilitating convicts, and advocated life imprisonment for capital offences. He also said the death penalty is greatly abused in the military.