Court Martial grants Brig. Ondoga bail

By David Lumu

After spending over four months in the dungeons of Makindye Military Barracks, Brigadier Michael Ondoga has been granted bail by the General Court Martial.

Ondoga’s lawyer, Frank Kanduho spiritedly told court that his client suffers from complex illness that needed urgent specialized treatment, which the state facilities at Makindye barracks could not give.

Captain Fredrick Kangwamu, the state/UPDF lawyer first argued that granting Ondoga bail would jeopardize the trial given his former role as the first commander of UGABAG10 (AMISOM).

Kangwamu also said that the healthy facilities at Makindye barracks and the physicians there can ably handle Ondoga’s health complexities.

However, Court Martial Chairman Brig. Moses Diba Ssentongo ruled that Ondoga be granted bail so that he could access superior and specialized treatment.

Ssentongo hedged his decision on the fact that if a suspect has full-filled the requirements for bail and more so has pleaded that his illness requires specialized treatment, there is no reason for denying such a person bail.

“Do you want him to collapse here? The person has said that he is sick, why don’t you allow him to access treatment elsewhere?” He asked the state prosecutor.

In November last year, Ondoga was remanded for allegedly failing to perform his duties and theft in connection with the operations at Amisom. In same month, he was also charged with eight offences before the General Court Martial.

Prosecution also wants the court martial to sentence Ondoga for allegedly failing to execute his duties while on mission in Somalia in October 2012 and command his subordinates.