UPDF ivory convicts fined sh4m

Two UPDF soldiers who were last week  convicted of being in illegal possession of protected animal species worth sh129 million have been given a court fine of sh4 million each, failure of which they should serve two years in Luzira Prison.

Corporal Kamugisha Collin attached to Entebbe Airport Guard Brigade together with Major Rutagira Allan attached to CMI Mbuya Army Headquarters were on March 24, 2016 arrested at Hotel Africana in Kampala with a sack of 12 pieces of elephant ivory weighing 19 kilogrammes.

Buganda Road court Grade one Magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu sentenced them saying as soldiers they had betrayed their motherland Uganda, yet it is their duty to protect  country and its resources for which they even receive a salary.

The magistrate also ordered that the exhibited ivory be handed to Uganda Wildlife Authority Executive Director for safe custody.

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editor@independent.co.ug