President Yoweri Museveni has pardoned 200 inmates who have been serving various sentences in different prisons around the country.
Frank Baine, the prison services spokesperson, said that the pardoned inmates include the former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Service Jimmy Lwamafa who was convicted in 2016.
Lwamafa was convicted alongside, Kiwanuka Kunsa, the former head of the research and development department, and Christopher Obey, former chief accountant of the Ministry of Public Services and sentenced to 10, 7 and 5 years in jail respectively by the anti-corruption court after they were found guilty of causing financial loss, abuse of office, neglect of duty, embezzlement and connivance to defraud the Ugandan government.
Baine revealed that Lwamafa was pardoned due to his ill health, advanced age and humanitarian grounds due to his long service in the Ministry of Public Service.
Baine noted that Prisons Services submitted a total of 1800 inmates to the advisory committee on Prerogative mercy.
He noted that the 200 were pardoned after finishing their appeal process, being capital offenders who finished 50% of their sentences, pregnant and suckling mothers who have finished 50% of their sentences, the terminally ill who have finished a quarter of their sentences and the elderly who have completed 50% of their sentences.
Baine said that the pardoned inmates will leave the prisons without any condition by tomorrow noting that the move will help decongest prisons.