On a Wednesday evening in August 2017, I opened X (formerly Twitter) to scroll through as I always do.
A breaking news story popped up: a man had been killed by a mob after allegedly attempting to set Café Javas on Parliament Avenue on fire. It was a deeply disturbing evening, trying to make sense of the events. As the evening went by, it emerged that the deceased was one Revence Kato Kalibwani, described as one of the finest minds in Uganda’s tech space.
Bizarre as it sounds, the country had lost a citizen to the mob under very unclear circumstances.
The debate at the time focused on his actions, ignoring the elephant in the room: jungle justice, commonly referred to as mob justice.
Now, nearly a decade later, one of Uganda’s professional sportsmen, Sydney Gongodyo, was attacked in broad daylight and beaten allegedly by mostly boda boda riders.
According to news reports, he was accused of trying to steal a handbag from a woman. However, his family has vehemently denied this allegation, pointing to nearby CCTV cameras that captured exactly what happened in his final moments.
The late Gongodyo has been described by many, especially those in the rugby fraternity, as talented, astute and promising.
His death has once again sparked an outcry about the persistent occurrence of jungle justice in Uganda.
Over decades, Ugandans have become comfortable with taking the law into their own hands, often citing a dysfunctional judicial system as justification.
The disgruntlement stems from suspects acquiring police bond, with many arguing that the temporary release of a suspect causes further anguish to victims and poses a risk to the public.
However, Ugandans ought to remember that police bond and judicial bail are constitutional rights to which every citizen is entitled, regardless of the accusation before them.
Mob action continues unabated simply because the State has failed to place stringent social sanctions on this criminality.
The cycle is always the same: a person gets accused of a crime, boda boda riders gang up and beat them to the point of near death, or sometimes death itself.
Police, with little regard for emergency response, shows up and simply loads the body, sometimes still alive, onto the back of a pickup and drives off to the national mortuary.
Often, no arrests are made, and where they are, no meaningful sanctions are given to culprits.
Gut wrenching testimonies shared across social media decry the total disregard for the law and the impunity exercised by some members of society.
This lawlessness will not only cost more lives but will plunge the country into anarchy faster than we may think. Stamp out mob action or risk anarchy!