Businesswoman charged for selling counterfeit agro chemicals

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A 35-year-old businesswoman has been charged for selling counterfeit agro chemicals to unsuspecting farmers.

The suspect identified as Evalyn Kunahimbire, was arraigned before the Buganda Road Grade One Magistrates Court and charged for forging a counterfeiting trademark, selling goods with false trademarks and falsely applying for trademarks.

The court presided over by Grade One Magistrate Marion Mangeni heard that Kunahimbire, a resident of Matugga town council in Wakiso district counterfeited Weed Master, a herbicide commonly used to control perennial weeds, whose trademark belongs to Bukoola Chemical Industries Ltd.

The court further heard that Kunahimbire falsely applied for a registered trademark knowing that Weed Master trademark was already registered and according to the prosecution, Kunahimbire did this with intentions to defraud.

But the accused denied the charges and asked to be released on bail. Her lawyer George Kayondo told the court that Kunahimbire has been in police custody for five days and needed to go home to continue taking care of her breastfeeding baby, with whom she appeared in the dock. Kayondo also argued that the accused has a permanent place of abode and that she has substantial sureties who were all her cousin brothers.

The prosecution had objected to the bail application saying that the sureties did not know the accused person’s exact place of residence and that granting Kunahimbire bail would make it difficult to trace her in case she absconds from the trial. But the presiding magistrate granted her bail of one million shillings cash and each of her two sureties was ordered to execute a bond fee of 50 million shillings, not cash.

Records indicate that Kunahimbire was arrested from Kampala during an operation carried out by the Anti Counterfeit Network Africa in partnership with Uganda Police Force and Bukoola Industries Limited. Thereafter, Kunahimbire was then taken to the headquarters of the Criminal Investigations Department of Police where she has been before being arraigned in court.

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