UPDF officer sentenced to caution

Nov 18, 2014

The General Court Martial has sentenced a senior UPDF officer, Maj. Nasur Namara, to a caution after he was convicted on his plea of guilty to charges of conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline.

By Pascal Kwesiga                                     

The General Court Martial has sentenced a senior UPDF officer, Maj. Nasur Namara, to a caution after he was convicted on his plea of guilty to charges of conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline.

Caution is one of the sentences under the UPDF Act. Namara, formally the commanding officer of motorized infantry vehicles of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) Uganda Contingent pleaded guilty to distributing $10,000 to his juniors in the mission area.

Namara, 40, who is attached to the regular forces of the UPDF, distributed the dollars to his juniors in the contingent’s motorized infantry component in August 2013.

According to the state, Namara, gave the money meant for maintenance of motorized infantry vehicles to his juniors under instructions from his boss, Lt. Col. Steven Lubuulwa.

Lubuulwa, who was also convicted of the same offence on his plea of guilty was sentenced to a severe reprimand before he was sent back to work.

Namara, who had initially pleaded not guilty, changed his plea in the course of the trial.

Maj. Gen. Levy Karuhanga, the court chairman, said on Monday that the court in Makindye, a Kampala suburb, had considered the earlier submission of the convict’s defense counsel that he was a first time offender and the state’s request for a deterrent sentence.

The defense barrister, Maj. Ronald Duli, asked the court to take into consideration the military practice that “creates” automatic submission to orders from superiors in sentencing his client.

He also asked the court to consider the one year Namara has spent on remand.

Karuhanga noted that although the offence of conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline attracts a sentence of dismissal from the forces with disgrace, the court considered the motive of the convict in committing the offense and the sentencing guidelines.

“He (Namara) didn’t have ill intentions of distributing the money. He thought it (distributing the money) would improve the morale and operations and dismissal would be detrimental to the UPDF morale,” he added.

Maj. Jamil Seguya, formally the maintenance officer of “soft skin” vehicles at the AMISOM Uganda contingent headquarters in Mogadishu, who had earlier denied charges of failure to execute duties, pleaded guilty to the same.

According to the state, Seguya, 46, failed to service a caterpillar donated to AMISOM by the US Government at the Uganda contingent headquarters in Mogadishu between December 2012 and July 2013.

This, the state argues resulted into the breakdown of the caterpillar that had been deployed under Uganda Battle Group 10.

Capt. Gerald Bamwitirebye, the state attorney, submitted that the convict had no lawful excuse to explain his actions and asked court to pass against him an appropriate sentence.

Duli asked court to consider the fact that the caterpillar was delivered without spare parts and that a private company had been contracted to manage it on behalf of the Ugandan troops.

The sentence was deferred to November 19.

 

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