{UAH} Govt sued over drink-driving crackdown
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12:56 PM |
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Just as the public debate over the police crackdown on drink-driving was dying down, a city lawyer has sued police for illegally arresting people allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol.
In his Constitutional court petition, Allan Mulindwa claims that the Traffic and Road Safety Act (prescribed alcohol limit) Regulations 2004, which, among things, prescribe the legal limit for motorists, contravene the Constitution. The petition is filed through Muwema & Mugerwa Advocates and Solicitors.
"That the Uganda police has and continues to enforce the impugned regulations by mounting several night roadblocks especially in Kampala to arrest and prosecute numerous motorists and road users on claims that they have exceeded the prescribed breath alcohol limit whereas there is no offence in this respect or breath alcohol limit lawfully prescribed under the law," Mulindwa says in his affidavit.
Mulindwa has told The Observer that due to a case backlog at the Constitutional court, his case may delay to be handled.
"We want to secure an interim order for the suspension of any activities under these regulations until the substantive petition is disposed of by the Constitutional court," he said recently.
Last year, police launched a drink-driving crackdown to reduce traffic accidents and fatalities. The police are purportedly using legal limits set by the minister responsible for transport, something Mulindwa opposes.
"The Traffic and Road Safety Act 1998, under which the impugned regulations are purportedly made does not empower/authorize the said minister to make regulations prescribing breath alcohol limit. It is a usurpation of the powers of Parliament to make laws and is inconsistent with and contravenes article 2, 79,111(2) and 117 of the Constitution," reads the petition.
Although under the Act, the minister responsible for transport was given powers to make regulations prescribing the limit of alcohol in blood beyond which a person would not be allowed to drive a vehicle as well as under section 112 thereof created the offence of driving a motor vehicle with blood alcohol concentration above the prescribed limit, Mulindwa claims that the act did not prescribe the limit.
"The Act under which the minister is empowered to make regulations does not create an offence in respect of a breath alcohol limit nor does it authorize him to make regulations to prescribe the limit of breath alcohol levels and to that extent, the regulations are contrary to the law," he says.
The contested regulations prescribed the blood alcohol level beyond which a person is not allowed to drive to be 80 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. And the breath alcohol beyond which a person is not allowed to drive to be 35 milligrams of alcohol in 100 milligrammes of breath.
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In praying for a permanent injunction against the operation of the regulations, Mulindwa also alleges that continued police action to enforce the current, unlawfully set breath alcohol limit is unlawful and inconsistent with the Constitution. By press time, the Attorney general was reported to have filed a response defending the regulations and the exercise.
The commissioner for Traffic, Steven Kasiima, also insisted the police were acting within the law.
"We cannot use regulations that are not lawful, these regulations were made by the minister for transport deriving such powers from the Traffic and Road Safety Act. So, I don't know where he bases his allegations," he told The Observer.
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