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A medical officer attached to Bugobero Health Centre IV, Bugobero Town Council in Manafwa district has been charged with soliciting shillings 200,000 to perform an operation.

Dr Sarah Bulaali and a midwife Sandra Chemusto, both residents of Bugobero Town Council in Manafwa district, were charged before the Nakasero-based Anti-Corruption Court’s Senior Principal Grade One Magistrate Abert Asiimwe.

They were charged with two counts of corruption contrary to section 2(a) and 25(1) and one count of neglect of duty contrary to section (2) and 26 of the Anti-Corruption Act of 2009.

The prosecution said Bulaali and Chemusto on August 29, 2023, at Bugobero Health IV, while employed by Manafwa District Local Government as a medical officer and a midwife respectively, solicited for the gratification of shillings 200,000.

It is alleged that Bulaali and Chemusto solicited money from Peter Wasubile for themselves to perform a surgical operation on Nabisawa Billa.

According to the prosecution, after soliciting shillings 200,000, the accused received shillings 150,000 from Wasubile as partial payment.

On the charge of neglect of duty, the prosecution alleges that on August 29, 2023, Dr Bulaali and midwife Chemusto, both employees of the Manafwa District Local Government Health Centre IV, failed to perform an emergency operation for obstructed labour on Billa, resulting in her death and the death of her unborn child. They denied the charges.

Magistrate Asiimwe on April 17, 2024, remanded them to prison until May 9, 2024, when they will appear in court for mention of the case.

What the law says

Both the offences of corruption and neglect of duty under section 2(I) of the Anti-Corruption Act carry penalties of up to 10 years in jail or a fine not exceeding shillings six million for a person convicted of the offence.