Museveni calls for ‘an eye for an eye’

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has asked the courts to impose mandatory death sentences for people convicted of murder following a series of kidnapping and killings, including one in which his nephew died. ‘You may commit a crime, carelessly taking away the lives of others but you will also lose your own life. We need to make this clear to the courts. It must be an eye for eye,’ Museveni wrote in a blog post. CNN reports that his nephew, Joshua Rushegyera, was found dead with a gunshot wound near a car parked on a popular highway in Kampala on 5 September. A body of a woman with bullet wounds was also found in the vehicle. No arrests have been made. Serious crimes, including murder and treason, can be punished with the death sentence in Uganda, but it is not mandatory and can only be handed down by judges.