Kitutu lines up fellow minister for bail hearing
Karamoja Affairs minister Mary Goretti Kitutu (centre), arrives at the Anti-Corruption Court in Kololo, Kampala, on April 6, 2023, where she was charged with two counts of causing loss of public property and conspiracy to defraud. PHOTO | ABUBAKER LUBOWA
What you need to know:
- The Anti-Corruption Court re-convenes today to decide whether Ms Kitutu gets bail. At two earlier hearings, the court had rejected her application for bail on grounds that some of the sureties she had proposed did not meet the court’s criteria, among other reasons.
The Minister of State for the Elderly, Mr Gidudu Mafabi, is expected this morning to lead a fresh line-up of three individuals to stand surety for embattled Karamoja Affairs minister Mary Goretti Kitutu, a week after she was arrested and sent on remand.
The Anti-Corruption Court re-convenes today to decide whether Ms Kitutu gets bail. At two earlier hearings, the court had rejected her application for bail on grounds that some of the sureties she had proposed did not meet the court’s criteria, among other reasons.
“Minister for the Elderly has accepted to stand surety for his fellow minister [today]. Despite court needing just one more substantial surety, the lawyers are not taking any chances of only having two sureties, they have added two more MPs, bringing the total number to four,” a source privy to the prosecution of Kitutu said last evening.
Ms Kitutu, who is facing two counts of causing loss of public property and one count of conspiracy to defraud for her role in the Karamoja iron sheets scandal, is believed to have also lined up two more MPs to stand surety for her. Like Mr Mafabi, the unnamed MPs also hail from Ms Kitutu’s home area in the Elgon Sub-region.
On Wednesday evening, Ms Kitutu was sent back to Luzira prison after the Anti-Corruption Court ruled that three of the four sureties presented, who included her husband, Micheal George Kitutu, were not sufficiently substantial. Chief Magistrate Joan Aciro observed that the three sureties failed to demonstrate a financial ability to execute the necessary court bond in the event that the minister jumped bail and fled the court’s jurisdiction.
The only surety found to have demonstrated financial capacity was Mbale City North Division MP Seth Wambede.
The sureties who were rejected on Wednesday included the minister’s husband, Mr Simon Mulongo, a former MP and current diplomat with African Union, and Dr Joel Wadawa, a plastic surgeon working with Kiruddu Hospital. “Much as court finds surety number three substantial (MP Wambede), this court declines to grant the applicant (minister Kitutu) bail as it requires at least more than one surety. Let the applicant go back to the drawing board and find other sureties and add onto the one that court has found substantial,” Ms Aciro ruled on Wednesday.
The court is also expected to rule on the bail application of Mr Michael Naboya Kitutu, the younger brother of minister Kitutu who is equally on remand over the same Karamoja iron sheets saga.
