A Nairobi High Court has ordered the release and deportation of Ugandan drug trafficker Ann Birungi Bisaso after ruling that keeping her in prison while her co-accused walked free three years ago violated her constitutional rights.
A Nairobi High Court has ordered the immediate release and deportation of a Ugandan woman who had been serving a 30-year prison sentence for drug trafficking, finding that keeping her behind bars while her co-accused had been freed three years earlier was a violation of her constitutional right to equal treatment.
High Court Judge Diana Kavedza ruled in favour of Ann Birungi Bisaso, who had served approximately 15 years of her sentence and challenged her continued imprisonment on grounds of unequal treatment. The court found the argument compelling and deemed her sentence fully served, ordering her immediate repatriation to Uganda.
Bisaso had been initially sentenced to life imprisonment, later reduced to 30 years, and handed a fine of Sh254,893,200. Her co-convict, John Mugisha, who was tried and convicted alongside her in the same case for the same offence, was released in 2023. From that point on, Bisaso's continued incarceration became the subject of a constitutional challenge that has now succeeded.
The court found no basis whatsoever for the differential treatment. "From the record, there is no distinction in their respective circumstances," court documents show. Justice Kavedza went further, stating that no material had been placed before the court to demonstrate any difference between the two convicts in terms of their participation in the offence, culpability, criminal record or any other relevant sentencing consideration.
Bisaso had also argued that she was denied an opportunity to have her sentence reviewed, infringing her right to a fair trial, and that her prolonged imprisonment had caused her severe psychological distress, stigma and undue suffering.
The state opposed the application, arguing that the release of a co-convict did not automatically amount to discrimination. Justice Kavedza rejected that position, finding that the state had failed entirely to demonstrate any distinguishing factor between the two individuals that could justify one remaining in prison while the other had long since been freed.
Invoking the principle of parity in sentencing — a well-recognised legal principle providing that similar sentences should be imposed for identical offences committed in similar circumstances — the judge held that there was no discernible basis for the disparity. "To uphold such differential treatment would offend the principle of parity in sentencing and violate Article 27(1) of the Constitution," she ruled.
With the sentence deemed fully served, the court ordered Bisaso's immediate release and directed the Ugandan High Commission to meet the costs of her deportation.
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