Ebola consultant set free by the Anti Corruption Court

Kampala, Uganda | GODFREY SSALI | Embattled Dr David Kaggwa, a consultant on Ebola disease, is set free by the Anti Corruption Court in Kololo, after being acquitted of charges of corruption and abuse of Office.

Dr. Kaggwa currently attached to  Kabarole regional referral hospital had been accused of corruptly receiving 580,000shillings using government facilities to treat private patients at his previous work station in Kagadi.

Prosecution had alleged that between January and June 2013, Dr Kaggwa while at Kagadi hospital in Kibaale District, used the hospital facilities to carry out surgeries on his private patients for personal gain to the disadvantage of his employer, which amounted to abuse of Office.

However the Anticorruption court Grade One Magistrate Lochomin Peter Fred, did not agree with prosecution and acquitted Dr. Kaggwa, with an order that the two million shillings bail deposit he made to Court, should be refunded to him.

Magistrate Lachomin noted that from the evidence on record, the circumstances under which he was carrying out the alleged services was voluntary, as Kagadi at the time did not have doctors, and he would come in on emergencies.

Magistrate Lachomin also observed that the evidence of paying for services at Kagadi Hospital remained unchallenged, since it was normal for patients to be referred from Dr. Kaggwa’s Clinic to the hospital for further management.

The Court then ordered that if any of Dr. Kaggwa’s Clinic items were confiscated and used as exhibits in this case, they should be returned to him.

Dr. Kaggwa was arrested in 2015 a year after being part of a medical team that went to Liberia to offer expatriate services in July 2014 following the most deadly Ebola outbreak.