Court has issued criminal summons against five activists over failure to turn up in court.

The activists are accused of holding unlawful protests and assaulting Police officer Flavia Nsimenta.

Moses Bukenya, Sharif Kawooya, Augustine Batanda, Gilbert Nayebare and Teddy Ssemakula, all members of the Revolution Against Dictatorship (RAD) and Torture Survivors Movement, a pressure group, are jointly charged with Nelson Ndyasiima, Sanyu Najjuma and Shafia Ssegawa, who were present in court.

Buganda Road Magistrates Court Grade One Magistrate Asuman Muhumuza issued the summons against the five activists on Thursday.

Prosecution alleges that the accused on March 28, 2023, on Ben Kiwanuka Street in Kampala district, assaulted Assistant Superintendent of Police Nsimenta, who at that time was executing her duty.

The accused also allegedly carried iron sheets on Kampala streets, demanding the prosecution of top government officials implicated in the diversion of iron sheets meant for the Karamoja Community Empowerment Programme.

The magistrate adjourned the case to September 7, 2023.

Files closed

Last month, Director of Public Prosecutions Jane Frances Abodo closed 17 files out of the 23 that had been opened, for lack of evidence. Meanwhile, Abodo disclosed that she had remained with two to three files involving technocrats to complete.

“We opened 23 files as against the original 40 we had opened up because we found that other iron sheets had been genuinely given out to the different constituencies, so we decided to close them and we focused on the Karamoja iron sheets," she earlier stated.

Ministers charged

So far, Karamoja affairs minister Mary Goretti Kitutu, Karamoja affairs state minister Agnes Nandutu and planning state minister Amos Lugoloobi are being prosecuted at the Anti-Corruption Court for allegedly diverting iron sheets meant for Karamoja region.

The trio are battling the charges together with Kitutu’s personal assistant, Joshua Abaho, and brother Micheal Kitutu Naboya.

Kitutu is facing charges of loss of public property and conspiracy to defraud, while the other two ministers are battling charges of dealing with suspect property. Naboya is charged with receiving stolen property while Abaho corruption.