At least 538 people convicted of minor offences in Kampala have been sentenced to one month of community service instead of being sent to prison.
The offenders, who had been held at Luzira Prison, were sentenced on Monday and will spend their one-month sentences cleaning markets, schools and other public places across Kampala.
At least 150 of them have already been deployed by the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) to begin the work, with the rest expected to be assigned duties in the city’s five divisions.
The offences for which they were convicted include public nuisance, trading without a licence, illegal trading, drunkenness, disturbing public peace, fighting, smoking opium, staging unlawful roadblocks and attempting to steal from pedestrians.
Senior Magistrate Edgar Karakire of City Hall Court said community service was appropriate for offenders, especially first-time offenders who had shown remorse and were willing to change their behaviour.
Some of the cases were also concluded through plea bargaining, where an accused person admits an offence and agrees to a negotiated outcome with the prosecution.
Instead of serving time in prison, each offender was ordered to perform unpaid public work for one month. They were given introductory letters and monitoring forms, which they must present to KCCA before starting their assignments.
KCCA will assign the offenders work and monitor them to ensure they comply with the court orders.
The offences included trading without a licence, contrary to the Trading Licensing Act, and disturbing public peace under the Kampala City Council Maintenance of Law and Order Ordinance.
Community service is a court-ordered punishment in which a person convicted of a minor offence performs unpaid work that benefits the community instead of serving a prison sentence.
The programme is mainly intended for minor offences that carry a maximum prison sentence of two years or less. It is also aimed at helping offenders reform while reducing the number of people sent to prison for less serious offences.
KCCA and the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Department of Community Service will jointly supervise the offenders and ensure they complete the work ordered by court.
The arrangement will also support Kampala’s sanitation efforts, with markets, schools and other public facilities expected to benefit from the cleaning work.
