Veteran politician Koigi Wa Wamwere has called for a bigger penalty for former Sudanese president Omar Al Bashir. Bashir has been sentenced to 2 years imprisonment in a rehabilitation facility after being convicted for corruption-related charges.
But Wamwere says that the sentence does not compare with the crime the Bashir committed, noting that graft should attract stiffer penalties. According to the former Subukia lawmaker, in any serious country, such a convict would be slapped with an upward of a 30-year jail term.
"As Africa, let's learn from Cuba, China and Korea while punishing the corrupt. There, people are jailed for 30 years and above or shot dead (Kama Africa, tunapoadhibu wafisadi tujifunze na Cuba, China na Korea ambako watu wanafungwa miaka thelathini na zaidi ama wanapigwa risasi)," he said on Saturday.
He spoke in an interview on Radio Sauti Ya Mwananchi, where he detected some games in the "short" sentence.
According to him, this could be a plot by the new leadership to let Bashir off the hook by giving him a small sentence, after which he will be out.
He opined that the sentence was just a way of fooling the Sudanese people, who earlier in the year forced Bashir out of office after over 30 years in power.
"A 2-year jail term is like a mockery to the Sudanese. It is just to fool them that the new regime is serving them (Kifungo cha miaka mbili ni kama kudhihaki wananchi wa Sudan. Kule ni kufunga watu macho na kudanganya watu eti uongozi mpya unawashughulikia)," he added.
However, the court cited a constitutional clause dictating that a citizen over 70 years of age cannot be slapped with a long jail term, hence the light punishment for the 75-year-old.
Bashir is also wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to face charged of participation in the Sudanese genocide.