Court of Appeal confirms conviction of policemen

By Hillary Nsambu

The Court of Appeal has confirmed an order barring two policemen, Sergeant Samuel Baluku and Police Constable Joshua Walusa from taking up any public office for ten years, saying they were properly convicted of the offence of abuse of office.

However, the court set aside as unlawful an order requiring the two convicts to compensate Comdel Forex Bureau in sh100m each, arguing that the compensation order was not provided in the Anti-Corruprion Act.

In August 2011, Justice Catherine Bamugemereire of the Anti-Corruption Division of the high Court found Baluku and Walusa guilty of abuse of office after being indicted for failure to remit to the authority sh210m they had recovered from Samuel Mugume, who had allegedly stolen it from Comdel Forex Bureau.

However, Baluku and Walusa, who were jointly indicted for abuse of office with an alternative count of theft, were not in court as they had already served a jail term of four years that had been handed down against them by the trial court in 2011.

Represented by Emmanuel Chandia, the two convicts had appealed faulted the trial court saying that she had failed to properly evaluate the whole evidence on record. They had also faulted the trial court for ignoring their argument that the identification in which they were picked had been unlawfully conducted as they had been exposed to the witnesses.

They had also challenged the order for compensation and; they had asked the appellate court to quash the conviction and set aside or vary the sentence.

However, the court agreed with the Assistant DPP Betty Khisa, contending that it was a case that did not require an identification parade since all the incidents had happened during broad day light and there was ample time for the witnesses to recognize them during the sharing of the recovered stolen monies.

RELATED STORIES:

Senior Policeman demoted over brutal arrest