The Uganda Prisons Commissioner General, Dr. Johnson Byabashaija has announced a hefty Shs. 500,000 bounty for every Moroto prison escapee and a heavy Shs1.5million reward for every gun recovered.

Byabashaija availed a sum of over Shs100 million to facilitate the tracking of over 200 prisoners in a substantial bid to manhunt and re-arrest escapees of Moroto Central Prison who made away with 14 guns.

All the 14 stolen SMG guns are still missing. By numbers, 198 inmates are still on the run, up to 12 of them have so far been reportedly taken back to the prison while 7 of the initial 207 escapees have been put out of action.

“I want to inform the escapees that it is a matter of time, we’re going to get them. Those who escaped in Arua, we got them, those who escaped in Bukwo we got them back. These ones we shall get them. In Uganda you cannot get lost. Even if you go in the neighbouring country by our corroboration we shall bring back, everyday we’re picking one by one,” Byabashaija warned, giving assurance that the culprits will be handled and held accountable for their multiple crimes.

By Baron Kironde

Uganda Prisons boss has survived being sent to jail for hiding court documents of embattled city tycoon Geoffrey Kazinda.

High Court Anti-Corruption Division Judge Margaret Tebulya had threatened to send Assistant Commissioner of prisons Apollo Baker Asinja to jail after he failed to explain why he didn’t pass over court documents served to him by attorneys from the Inspector General of Government (IGG) office.

This was after Kazinda denied before the judge ever receiving the final submission from the IGG in the case where he is charged with amassing huge wealth and failing to explain its source.

Senior State Attorney Sarah Birungi first told court that they had served the accused with the final submissions but he didn’t reply.

Kazinda insisted that he never received the said submissions even though court records indicated that he received the said submissions through Asinja.

The nonsense Tebulya tasked Birungi to prove to court that they served the accused by producing the said prisons officer who received the court documents.

Panicky Birungi took over one hour making frequent telephone calls to prison bosses, she was even heard threatening one of the people she was talking to that the judge was going to issue a court directive to have her arrested.

In thirty minutes, Asanja arrived at court panting. The judge asked him what his intentions were not to pass over court documents to the accused.

Asanja told court that he received the document but he doesn’t remember where he put them because they were given to him at a time when he was too busy in the field making sure that the directives to stop the spread of COVID19 are implemented.

Asanja’s statements made Tebulya lose her temper, he denied the IGG’s application to be added more time to look for the said submission and decided to go with that of Kazinda which was on court records.

The judge set Friday of this week for the court assessors to advise her on how to make her final decision on the matter.

State alleges that between 2010 and 2012, the accused, while still working in the Prime Minister’s office as the Principal Accounting Officer maintained a standard of living of income and assets whose sum for the duration of 2009 to 2012 was questionable.

The assets included: Rented and occupied suit 105 at Golden Leaves now Constellation suits Nakasero, apartments at Sheraton hotel Kampala for a period of ten months at a total of UGx 210,364,401, land in Bukoto and Mmengo worth 3,657,747,500, a fleet of cars worth UGX 769,473,835 among others.

It should be noted that the illicit enrichment case is the only criminal case that Kazinda is battling with after the Constitutional court declared that he was illegally charged and detained.

By Sengooba Alirabaki

Kayunga District Veterinary Officer (DVO) Dr. Ronald Kanakulya has accused area NRM chairman Moses Karangwa of being more dangerous than the Coronavirus itself because of intentionally moving cattle from one place to another and in the process potentially facilitating the spread of the foot & mouth disease.

In a three page dossier dated September 8th 2020 to the police bosses, Dr. Kanakulya asked the Kayunga DPC to ensure that enough policemen are deployed to stop Karangwa from violating the cattle movement quarantine restrictions that were put in place by the Minister of Agriculture demanding that no cattle should move from one place to another within Kayunga district.

Karangwa is one of the powerful NRM officials in Kayunga and is known to own a lot of cattle and land. The DVO says that under the protection of security guards from Star React Security Company, Karangwa’s cows have freely been moving from Kinnamawanga village in Kasokwe parish to other villages and in the process increasing the risk of the spread of F&M disease.

The DVO says that the LC bosses who are supposed to enforce the quarantine rules fear stopping Karangwa’s herdsmen because they think his armed security guards will beat them up or even shoot them dead.

The DVO says the cows belong to Karangwa because they each have the label INL which the area LC leaders say is a serial number used to identify Karangwa’s cattle in Kayunga.

The quarantine has been in force since 28th September 2019.

Dr. Kanakulya travelled to Bbale to investigate this risk after three orphans Mustapha Kiggwe, Yusuf Kiwala and Jennifer Nsubuga who have been fighting Karangwa in court over 540 acres of land in Misanga village filed a case at Kayunga police accusing the NRM tycoon of illegal cattle movement.

The case was filed as SD11/06/09/20. When summoned at police, Karangwa denied responsibility of any wrongdoing and said he had sold the cows to Richard Mushabe, a man considered too broke to buy anything from such a tycoon.

The DVO requests the RDC Kayunga to beef up the DPC to ensure Karangwa’s illegal cattle movement is blocked and stopped because there is high risk of increasing the spread of F&M disease in the area.

He adds that the same cattle movement is also illegal as it’s against the recent court ruling by Justice Margaret Mutonyi from the Mukono High Court where she stated that the land (block 38 plot 2) belongs to the three orphans meaning Karangwa has no right to take his cows there.

The three orphans have decided to report Karangwa back to court and they want him jailed for contempt of court. The land originally belonged to their father Yonadabu Bidandi Nsubuga who died in 1995 leaving two square miles of land and thousands of cattle.

Bidandi left his property in the hands of heir and oldest son Christopher Kikku Nsubuga who the three orphans say they lost trust in after he started working with Karangwa to sell off part of their father’s land to the Madhvani group for sugarcane growing.

The Madhvani group has since become the owner of 900 acres of land from this family after they bought it from Karangwa who at first rented the same from Kikku.

That matter is already in court of appeal where the three orphans want Karangwa’s Madhvani Group to be forced out because the land is theirs and not for Kikku who they say cannot be trusted anymore because he is compromised by Karangwa to betray them through using fake letters of administration and fake land titles.

The three orphans recently wrote to the Principal Judge and complained against Mukono Registrar Ssali Nalukwago who was eventually transferred to Supreme Court. They accused her of being biased in favor of Karangwa, Kikku and other tormentors who are eyeing their father’s land.

By Grapevine Reporter