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KAMPALA - The Anti-Corruption Court in Nakasero is scheduled to rule on August 5, 2024, regarding the bail application filed by three MPs facing corruption charges. 

On August 2, 2024, Members of Parliament Yusuf Mutambuli (Bunyole East), Paul Akamba (Busiki County), and Cissy Namujju applied to the Anti-Corruption Division of the High Court in Nakasero, seeking to be granted bail. The application was heard by the head of the Division Justice Lawrence Gidudu. 

Through their lawyers—Mwesigwa Rukutana, Caleb Alaka, Evans Ochieng, Herbert Kidiya, Richard Rugambwa, Brian Rubihayo, Susan Sylvia Wakabala, Geoffrey Ntambirweki, and Edgar Ayebazibwe—the MPs requested that the court grant bail to all the accused. 

The lawyers argued that the accused, being Members of Parliament with permanent places of residence, are unlikely to abscond their trial if granted bail. They also asserted that the accused have substantial sureties who will ensure their return to court for the trial. 

The lawyers argued that the accused are still presumed innocent until proven guilty by the court and that bail is their constitutional right. 

The trial of the accused commenced on August 2, 2024, with the chairperson of the Uganda Human Rights Commission Mariam Wangadya testifying as the first witness. 

The lawyers presented several MPs as sureties for the accused, including Stephen Baka (Bukooli County), Florence Nebanda (Butaleja Woman), Erick Mutiwa (Bunyole West), Alex Brandon Kintu (Kagoma North), Pamela Kamugo (Budaka Woman), Muhamad Ssentayi (Bukoto West), and Ssemwanga Gyaviira (Buyamba). 

However, Chief Attorney Jonathan Muwaganya from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions opposed the bail application, arguing that the accused did not present substantial sureties.

He told the court that the accused had not demonstrated their capacity to meet the bail terms as required by the Anti-Corruption Case Management Rule 2021, specifically Rule 7.

The rule stipulates that sureties must have the capacity to fulfil the bail terms if the accused absconds.

Muwaganya stated, "None of the sureties meet the requirements of Rule 7 of the Legal Notice of 2021. Being a Member of Parliament does not prove that they have the capacity to meet the bail terms."

Muwaganya further argued that the accused had not also demonstrated any exceptional circumstances to warrant their release on bail. He urged the court to consider the gravity of the offences with which the accused are charged.

Prosecution’s case

It is alleged that Mutembuli, Akamba, and Cissy Namujju on May 13, 2024, at Hotel Africana in Kampala, solicited from Mariam Wangadya, the chairperson of the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) an undue advantage of 20 per cent of the anticipated enhanced budget of UHRC for the financial year 2024/2025 by asserting that they were able to exert improper influence over the decision making of the Budget Committee of the Parliament of Uganda to increase the budget of UHRC.

They denied the charge.