PM Nabbanja rescues mother-of -seven from jail

The Prime Minister, Ms Robinah Nabbanja, yesterday bailed out a widow and mother-of-seven after paying her outstanding debt of Shs2.8m.

Ms Nabbanja paid the money after a meeting convened at Rubaga Chief Magistrate’s Court in Kampala yesterday.

The meeting attracted officers from the Attorney General’s Chambers and police force.

The PM later directed the release of Ms Gertrude Nalule from prison where she had been sentenced to six months on November 18.

Ms Nalule had been sent to jail after failing to pay the said money in damages to Mr Godfery Bazaale, who won a case that was heard by the Grade One Magistrate at Mwanga II Court.

Ms Nabbanja’s intervention followed a media presentation at Luzira of Nalule’s problems. 

Ms Nalule said she lost her husband to a motor accident eight years ago, however, during the Covid-19 lockdown, she could no longer work and her neighbour Baazale gave financial help to her family to the tune of Shs7 million.

When she failed to pay back the money, Bazaale allegedly made her sign an agreement purporting to sell- off the plot of land at Shs10 million.

“I have paid the money to release the woman, there are a lot of loopholes in this case which the court needs to fix,” Ms Nabbanja said.

The PM accused the court of failing to properly handle the cases.

In response, the Grade One Magistrate, Ms Amon Mugezi, explained that it is difficult for the court to know about cases if the accused do not attend court to defend themselves.

“Madam prime minister those are the facts we tell people to bring to court such as the evidence that the land is not for Nalule. So, if someone does not come to court, we deal with what is on the file, that is the law, we presume that they do not want to defend themselves,” Mr Mugezi said.

Mr Mugezi added that at the beginning of 2020, Ms Nalule sold the piece of land to Mr Bazaale at Shs10m and Shs7m was paid in intervals of two.

It was further heard that Ms Nalule refused to pick the balance of Shs3 million and the matter went to court.
The meeting further heard that Ms Nalule was summoned to appear in court to defend herself, but she did not show up even after a court process server was sent to her for the second time, and photographs of her receiving the summons were attached to the court file.

However, this did not satisfy Ms Nabanjja who kept on questioning the magistrate as to whether someone could get a piece of land with a house at Namungoona-Kigobe zone at Shs10 million.