Nabweru court clerk sentenced over UGX 150,000 bribe

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Anti-Corruption Court in Kampala has sentenced Vincent Anyou Ngolobe to a fine of 600,000 shillings for receiving a bribe of 150,000 Shillings.

Ngolobe was sentenced on Thursday by Principal Grade One Magistrate Moses Nabende after he was convicted on two charges of corruption.

Ngolobe was found guilty of having solicited the bribe from Derrick Munywevu in exchange for assistance to expeditiously secure for him an eviction order in a case which he had filed in 2021 at Nabweru Chief Magistrates Court in Kawempe Division.

According to the evidence submitted before court, Ngolobe solicited the bribe on July 22, 2021, and August 11th, 2021 at Nabweru court.

He denied the charges when he was arraigned in court the first time but was found guilty after evidence from five witnesses, whom the court noted had proved the ingredients of the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Nabende ordered Ngolobe to pay a fine of 600,000 shillings and barred him from holding public office for ten years.  Nabende reasoned that although the money involved in this case was not a colossal amount, there is a need for the court to deter other would-be offenders by imposing a deterrent sentence.

She said that Ngolobe abused the trust of his employer by committing such a crime.

In a related development, the Anti-Corruption Court Grade One Magistrate Abert Asiimwe has charged Detective Sergeant Roberts Mandellor and Alex Olega with corruption. The two are police officers attached to Mukono Police Station in Mukono district.

It is alleged that in January, the policemen while at Mukono Police Station solicited and accepted a bribe of 500,000 shillings from Ronald Steven Serufusa a complainant in exchange for excluding him as a suspect in a case in which he had reported death threats being directed to one of his friends.

Sources say that there was a land conflict and when Serufusa reported to police, the accused kept calling him asking for money to do investigations. They went ahead to ask for 500,000 shillings or else they would add him in the case of death threats.

But Mandellor denied the charges and was granted bail of 3 million shillings cash and each of his three sureties bonded at 10 million shillings, not cash.  The case was adjourned to September 14 for the State House Anti-Corruption Unit detectives to bring Olega for plea taking.

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