Buganda Road Court yet to decide on Kakwenza’s sureties

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Buganda Road Chief Magistrate’s Court has failed to proceed with the case in which the four sureties of satirical novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija want to be discharged of their duties.

They are city lawyer, Julius Galisonga, David Lewis Rubongoya, the Secretary-General of the National Unity Platform Party, Annah Ashaba,  a teacher at Kololo Secondary School and Job Kiija, an activist.

They stood surety for Kakwenza who is facing charges of offensive communication stemming from his critical social media posts against the president, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and his son Gen. Kainerugaba Muhoozi.

Kakwenza skipped bail and fled to Germany forcing Buganda Road Court Chief Magistrate, Dr Douglas Singiza to issue a warrant for his sureties to pay the Shillings 10 million each they committed themselves to pay in the event that Kakwenza skips bail.

However, Dr Singiza was no show when the matter came up on Monday. He was instead represented by Grade One Magistrate, Sanula Nambozo who couldn’t discharge the sureties.  The State Attorney Joan Keko informed Court that they couldn’t proceed as expected since the trial Magistrate wasn’t around.

She asked the court to extend the warrant of arrest issued against the sureties last month and the case to be adjourned. Kakwenza’s lawyers led by Samuel Wanda raised no objection to the adjournment. As a result, Nambozo adjourned the matter to June 1st, 2022 and extended the arrest warrant until then.

Speaking to Uganda Radio Network,  Wanda and Ivan Bwowe, said that they have since filed an application seeking a certified copy of the proceedings to enable them to challenge the proceedings in the High Court on grounds that the lower court did not follow the right procedure before it issued a warrant of arrest against the sureties.

The sureties were not present in Court today.

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URN