City Lawyer Hassan Male Mabirizi has instituted criminal proceedings against the former executive director of Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), David Livingstone Ebiru. 

This comes barely three months after the Inspector General of Government (IGG), Beti Kamya, withdrew charges of corruption against Ebiru. 

Mabirizi wants Ebiru to be charged with money laundering, contrary to Sections 3 (c), 116 and 136 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2013, as amended. 

Mabirizi purports that on July 19, 2023, at Panamera Bar in Naguru, Nakawa Division in Kampala, Ebiru intentionally acquired, possessed, and used sh100m knowing at the time of receipt, acquisition, possession and use that the money was proceeds of crime (corruption). 

The Anti-Corruption Court presided over by Principal Grade One Magistrate; Abert Asiimwe will hear the application tomorrow, Wednesday, January 24. 

Mabirizi says Ebiru on July 19, 2023, informed the Parliament Committee on Commissions, State Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) that he obtained sh100m, which he allegedly paid as a bribe to the former Uganda National Bureau of Standards Council chairperson Charles Masekuura to retain him in the position of chief executive officer. 

“Being his voluntary statements on Parliament Hansard, Ebiru is criminally liable,” Mabirizi contends.

He prayed to the court to issue criminal summons against Ebiru to answer charges of money laundering. 

On July 26, 2023, Ebiru was arraigned before the Anti-Corruption Court, but he was not formally charged after IGG’s prosecutor Rogers Kinobe (now court registrar) informed the court that they needed more time to finalise investigations. 

This prompted the court to issue criminal summons against Ebiru to appear on August 8, 2023, but the latter did not appear in court. 

Subsequently, the court directed the Police to arrest Ebiru and produce him in court to answer charges of corruption after he refused to appear in court despite summons. 

Ebiru later filed an application before the Anti-Corruption Division of the High Court, seeking to block his trial but Justice Jane Okuo Kajuga dismissed his application and okayed his arrest. 

In her ruling, Kajuga noted that the case against Ebiru had not yet been committed to the High Court for trial, and hence can be handled by the lower court. 

“The case can only find its way to the High Court through referral by the Chief Magistrate as provided for under section 7(1) of the Human Rights Enforcement Act which has not been done,” she earlier observed. 

Kajuga explained that under section 7 (3) of the Human Rights Enforcement Act, the magistrate is vested with powers to stay proceedings but would then be required to refer to the High Court matters relating to alleged violation of fundamental rights for determination. 

“I find that the way the matter has been directly brought to the High Court is forcing it to resolve quite a number of issues which the magistrates court has jurisdiction to handle,” she earlier ruled. ion to land in Mbuya, Kampala.

Judge Bernard Namanya of the Land Division of the High Court, on January 23, 2024, dismissed the case where Harriet Rugigana sued NSSF, claiming that it encroached on her land.  

The land, measuring 0.098 hectares, is comprised of leasehold register volume 3656, Folio 10, plot 13 Ismael Road, Mbuya, Kampala city.  

Rugigana claimed that NSSF allegedly constructed several condominium units on the land. NSSF, on the other hand, contends that it lawfully purchased the land from Rev. Dr Grace Karamura and Dr Lydia Karamura, who were the registered proprietors.  

Namanya rue that NSSF is the lawful proprietor of the land, having purchased it in 2012.  

“I have carefully evaluated the evidence adduced by the defendant, who presented the sale agreement between Dr Grace Karamura and Dr Lydia Karamura and the defendant dated June 4, 2012. The certificate of title of the suit land shows that the defendant purchased several parcels of land, including the land comprised in leasehold register volume 3656, Folio 10, plot 13 Ismael Road in Kampala, measuring approximately 0.098 hectares, at a consideration of shillings 1.6 billion,” Namanya said.  

The court ruled that Rugigana had no interest in the land since she could not prove that it was her land.