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Three MPS in budget corruption case granted bail
Busiki County legislator Paul Akamba, Lwengo District Woman MP Cissy Namujju and Bunyole East MP Yusuf Mutembuli. PHOTO/COMBO
What you need to know:
- Justice Gidudu also informed the court that he will be concluding the case by October 31.
After spending fifty-five days on remand at Luzira prison, the Anti-Corruption Division of the High Court has granted bail to three Members of Parliament (MPs) facing charges of budget corruption.
Justice Lawrence Gidudu held that “bail should not be denied just because the state wishes to keep a prisoner in jail without proof of case.”
The three bailed legislators are Paul Akamba ( Busiki County, Namutumba), Yusuf Mutembuli (Bunyole East, Butaleja District) and Cissy Namujju Dionizza (District Woman representative of Lwengo).
The judge explained that bail can be refused in absence of exceptional circumstances in scenarios where violence is involved or colossal sums of money or even trans-border crimes such as terrorism, arms trafficking.
“…but these are MPs who have already been on remand for about 55 days to date. They are alleged to have plotted to execute a scheme which backfired. They did not succeed. Their trial has started. They denied the charges, they have credible, traceable and known sureties who are public figures,” Justice Gidudu ruled.
He added: “I’m aware that the country is currently in a combative mood against corruption. Going by press and social media reports, the public is now fed up with corruption in public offices.”
However, the judge explained that court treats any allegation of corruption as a serious matter but before they are proved, he would temporarily consider granting them bail on conditions that reflect the gravity of the case.
He further held that the three legislators have the capacity to meet the terms of the bond considering that MPs earn very high salaries and allowances surpassing any profession and having capacity to increase their privileges to meet the high standards of living.
“Consequently, I grant bail on the following conditions: Each applicant will execute a cash bail of Shs50million, deposit his/her passport in court. Each surety will execute a bond of Shs100 million not cash, each applicant shall commit to be available and their counsel to proceed with the trial as required by rules 5 and 12(4) of Legal Notice 11 of 2021 and if they fail they are remanded to August 8 for further hearing,” Justice Gidudu held.
Justice Gidudu also informed the court that he will be concluding the case by October 31.
However, Akamba will not immediately leave prison as he still faces charges of theft of Shs3.4billion meant for compensation of Buyaka Growers co-operative society Ltd in another court.
Still on Monday, court declined to have a voice recording of a meeting of Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) chairperson Mariam Wangadya with the three accused lawmakers in the budget graft case.
Prosecution had requested for the recordings during Wangadya’s testimony.
“At this stage it is not disclosed by evidence what happened to the device that PW1 (prosecution witness one) used to record sounds. It is therefore strange that the prosecution is introducing sounds that appear on a device different from what PW1 used,” Justice Gidudu held.
He added: “We have had evidence of audios and CCTV clips played in this court but it is a matter for the forensic experts and the investigating officers. It is not clear to me why the prosecution wants PW1 to listen to her voice when she did not play her recording. An expert that decoded the sound from the gadget can play sound that either tallies with the testimony of PW1 or not.”
While giving her testimony in chief last Friday, Wangadya told court that three legislators asked her for a 5% kick back in order to increase her budget.
“On May 13 2024, I received a call from Mutembuli asking me to meet him with some of his colleagues at Hotel Africana in Kampala but I first called Major Betty Kagaba to inform the president before meeting him. She instead handed me a voice recorder in the form of a pen and took me through on how to use it before I proceeded to Hotel Africana where I met Mutembuli, Akamba and later was joined by Namujju,” Wangadya narrated.
Its prosecution’s case that the trio on May 13, 2024, at Hotel African, solicited an undue advantage of 20% of the anticipated enhanced budget for UHRC for the financial year 2024/25 from Wangadya
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), further stated that the MPs did this by asserting that they were able to exert improper influence over the decision-making of the Budget Committee of Parliament to increase the Commission's budget, in consideration of the said undue advantage.
