The Wandegeya based Anti-Corruption Court Chief Magistrate Joan Aciro has allowed the application filed by Kampala city maverick lawyer Kassim Male Mabirizi protesting the move by the Director for Public Prosecution (DPP) Justice Jane Frances Abodo to take over the Private Criminal Prosecution case against the person of Annet Anita Among the Speaker of Parliament.
Mabirizi instituted criminal proceedings of money laundering against Among claiming that she has accumulated a lot of wealth through fraudulent means. On his charge sheet, Mabirizi listed the properties he claims Among has acquired through fraudulent means.
These are these; palatial residential house at Mackinnon Road, Nakasero in Central Division of Kampala; a residential house in minister’s village Ntinda in Nakawa Division; Sky Hotel International, a 3 star hotel at Kyadondo plot 1423 Ntinda off Nalya road; a palatial upcountry residential home at Aereere village, Kamutur Sub county in Bukedea district.
Mabirizi also claimed that Among owns a Toyota Land Cruiser V8 motor vehicle Registration Number UBJ 005U, Mercedes Benz motor vehicles personalized Registration Number Plate AAA 1, and AAA 2 and AAA 3.
He insisted that she obtained them through corrupt means.
“The Offence attracts a maximum sentence of 15 years imprisonment in addition to seizure and auctioning of the said properties to ensure that public funds are taken back to national treasury,” he said in is charge sheet.
Mabirizi added, “At trial, the prosecutor shall call several witnesses to prove the case well aware that the burden is on the accused person to prove that money that purchased the properties was not illicit.”
He pleaded with the trial magistrate to issue criminal summons against the accused person. However, the DPP wrote to the Court noting that she has taken over the case.
Mabirizi protested the move explaining that DPP lacks the locus to take over his case before the Criminal summons are issued.
He based on the communication made to all Resident State Attorneys and all government prosecutors not to take any Private Criminal Prosecution before Criminal Summons are issued which the trial magistrate agreed and set 29th of January 2024 to hear Mabirizi’s application and rule on whether it is necessary to issue criminal summons against the person of Among.
In September 2023, parliament presided over by Among granted Paul Akamba, the Busiki County MP leave to introduce a private member’s bill seeking to end private prosecution in Uganda and have it reserved only for the office of the DPP and the Inspector General of Government (IGG).
In his argument, Akamba pointed out loopholes in the 52year old Magistrates Courts Act Chapter 16 that commenced in January 1971 that gives private individuals through Section 42 (1)(c), the right to make a complaint as provided in subsection (3) and apply for the issuance of a warrant or summons in the Magistrates Act in section 42(3).
He insisted that reliance on the magistrate alone and local chief of an area can’t be equated to the arms of the two offices (the DPP and IGG) that work together with other security agencies to collect water tight evidence.
He added that the DPP’s take over or discontinuation of private criminal proceedings is intended to guarantee the credibility of the process.
Akamba was supported by human rights lawyer Asuman Basalirwa who is also the Bugiri Municipality MP who seconded the motion.
Basalirwa argued that the framers of the constitution did envisage that matters of prosecution are a preserve of the DPP and although there are provisions under the same constitution that allow private prosecutions, ultimately, the same constitution allows the DPP to take over all private prosecutions.
However, Deputy Attorney General Jackson Kafuzi protested the move by the speaker to grant Akamba leave to present the said amendments noting that they should first give them time to come up with a legal opinion.
