The International Crimes Division of High Court has allowed Rwenzururu King Charles Wesley Mumbere to travel abroad to seek treatment.
Mumbere recently in an application asked the International Crimes Division of the High Court in Kololo to lessen on the stringent bail conditions that have seen him confined at his home in Muyenga for close to two years now without returning to his palace in Kasese.
On Thursday, Justice Margaret Oumo Oguli upheld the Omusinga’s travel ban to Kasese saying that the Rwenzururu king never presented evidence to show there is no longer an uprising in the area.
The judge explained in her ruling that Mumbere’s travel to Kasese where there are his subordinates that the state intends to rely on as witnesses to pin him would see him interfere with them.
Justice Oguli also ruled that she can not order for the military to be removed from Omusinga’s residence in Muyenga because it does not have such powers.
She explained that it is the state to determine the type of security to be provided for cultural leaders.
The court, however, directed the Ministry of Internal Affairs to issue the Omusinga with a new passport that would enable him travel abroad for treatment after convincing it that he needs an eye surgery that cannot be done in Uganda.
He was ordered to return his passport after seven days upon return from abroad for the eye surgery.
Mumbere was arrested on November 26, 2016, during an army raid on his Buhikira palace in Kasese Town and was later airlifted and detained at Nalufenya police station in Jinja district but was in January 2017 granted bail by the High Court in Jinja.
In its bail ruling, the High Court in Jinja in 2017 restricted the Omusinga to moving in only three districts of Kampala, Jinja and Wakiso but barred him from stepping foot in Kasese, Kabarole and Bundibugyo for fear of interfering with investigations into the Rwenzori region attacks.
In his application, the Omusinga through his lawyers of Caleb Alaka and Company Advocates, says the bail conditions set by the High Court in Jinja have made it difficult for him to enjoy his freedom.
“The bail conditions have been turned into a house arrest by the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) instead of police guarding him. He cannot be even allowed to go for medication, Samuel Muyizzi Mulindwa, one of Mumbere’s lawyers told journalists.
Mumbere is accused together with his royal guards of terrorism, treason, murder and aggravated robbery among other charges stemming from the November 2017 attack on his palace in Kasese by the army.
