Why the court ordered the government to pay compensation to LRA victims

Gulu | On Monday, December 16, 2024, the International Crimes Division of the High Court, sitting in Gulu High Court, ordered Uganda’s government to pay shs10 million to each victim who lost a loved one.

The court determined that convict Thomas Kwoyelo was unable to pay the compensation due to his indigent status.

While reading the court findings, Justice Michael Elubu stated that the applicant(s) (victims) had made seven prayers to the court, which the court categorized as peculiar and non-peculiar measures.

“On death compensation, the court has also taken note of other government previous payments of ex-gratia to victims of similar incidents like the 2010 bombing in Kyandondo club in Kampala where each victim was paid shs5 million,” Justice Elubu said.

“Therefore, the court has noted the prayers of the applicant and each victim should be paid shs10 million for the exhumation of the deceased persons.”

The court also awarded shs4 million in cash compensation to each victim to cover their bodily injuries and to respond to the applicant’s prayer number 6, which requested the same amount of compensation.

However, the court also noted that property was lost during the attacks in Pagak ID camp by the convict and dwelling houses, bicycles, livestock, and foodstuff were lost by the victims.

“The court was guided by evidence of Pagak ID camp presented by the former IDP camp leader who furnishes the court with the value of these items worth shs3.5 million per household and court finds the award is proper per household,” Justice Elubu reads the order.

According to Justice Elubu, the court further looked into the sexual gender based violence crimes where 3 victims (T, R, and N) had forced sex, marriages, and forced labor leading to physical abuse and injuries of both psychological and physical in nature thus an award of shs5 million per direct victim.

Further, the court also awarded shs3 million for exhumation of each deceased body from the former IDP camps and ordered the government to put in place a collective reparation and symbol which will serve as remedies and lead to satisfaction of the victims.

As a result, the court said the government should foot the bill, saying the sheer scale of the atrocities Kwoyelo had committed was such that they amounted to a failure on the part of the government.

However, Johnson Natuhwera, a Senior State Attorney who represented the Attorney General, asked the court to allow the government to take a leave to appeal the decision of the court since they (government) thinks the court would hear them out.

“We are not against the victims being compensated by the government but we also want the court to allow us to make a formal appeal which the law also permits us to do so,” Natuhwera told the court.

This prayer by the government was objected to by Henry Kilama Komakech, the victims’ counsel, citing that the government is just finding it hard to accept paying victims and yet they are responsible.

“My Lords, we object to the applications for leave of appeal by my learned colleague. Whereas the law allows him to do so, I think the government is just trying to buy time to delay justice for the victims and pay them the compensation,” Kilama told the court.

In October 2024, court sentenced Kwoyelo to 40 years in prison for war crimes, the first senior member of the feared rebel group to be convicted.

Kwoyelo had been found guilty on 44 charges, including murder, rape, enslavement, pillaging, torture, and kidnapping.

The LRA was founded in the late 1980s with the aim of overthrowing the government and creating a state based on leader Joseph Kony’s interpretation of the Ten Commandments.

It battled the government from bases in the north of the country for nearly two decades and when military pressure forced the LRA out of Uganda in 2005, the rebels scattered across parts of Central Africa.

There have been few reports of LRA attacks in recent years, the group has not been stable, and its top leader, Joseph Kony, is still at large.

He was indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2005.