12 years of sleepless nights

Mr Lawrence Dawa at his shop in Kiswa, a Kampala suburb. He says since he did not get justice from court, relaying his son’s story for the record would be justice enough. PHOTO BY ismail kezaala.  

The morning of February 2, 2001 carries sombre memories for Mr Lawrence Dawa – on that day, his son Alex Adiga Remo was murdered.

Twelve years later, Mr Dawa keeps his son’s O-Level and A-Level certificates, a photograph he had taken days before his death and campaign flyers of Dr Kizza Besigye, which were recovered from the scene. “He was a very intelligent young boy; he would now be grown up and important,” the 72-year-old Mr Dawa says, struggling to hold back tears.

Remo’s body was found lying in a pool of blood between Lumumba and Mary Stuart halls at Makerere University. The 19-year-old government-sponsored student was shot thrice in the chest by a suspected security operative after Dr Besigye’s rally at the university the previous evening.
Ronald Onen, whom Mr Dawa suspects to have shot his son, was arrested and charged with the murder. The trial, however, never took off.

Mr Dawa had been advised by the former Speaker of Parliament, Francis Ayume, to tread carefully because the “State is very powerful”. He had met Ayume during a reunion meeting for the Koboko community in Kampala.

Between June 29, 2001 and September 25, 2002, Mr Dawa made it a point to appear at Buganda Road Court. He was there 20 times. “Most of the time they would just read out his (suspect’s) name, he would stand up and then the magistrate would give another date for him to appear. It usually took about five minutes,” Mr Dawa says. Because Onen had been charged with murder, a capital offence, Buganda Road Magistrates Court could only commit him to the High Court, which never happened.

On August 8, 2002, there was a twist in the case. “He (Mr Onen) had been appearing before Court 5A but this time he appeared before Court 5B.” The reason given for the change was that both the magistrate and prosecutor in 5A had given birth.

Case closed
On that day, Onen was released on bail and ordered to appear again on August 23, 2002. When he appeared on September 25, 2002, the case file was missing and all the charges were dropped. Part of the advice Ayume gave Mr Dawa was to appeal to the Human Rights Commission (HRC). But the appeal was fruitless because, the HRC officials were “legally barred from intervening in cases which were already before court”.

They advised him to try Legal Aid, a civil society which provides legal assistance to the financially disadvantaged. Unfortunately for him, the projects Legal Aid was running did not cover criminal matters.