Ex-magistrate charged over land

Former Chief Magistrate of Mwanga II Court Gaster Mugoya has been charged with forgery and utterance of false documents

By Charles Ariko, Edward Anyoli & Herbert Ssempogo

Former Chief Magistrate of Mwanga II Court Gaster Mugoya has been charged with forgery and utterance of false documents.

He denied the charges before the Buganda Road Court Grade One Magistrate, John Wekesa, yesterday.

Mugoya was jointly charged with two city lawyers, John Fisher Ssengoba and Kenneth Kajeke and a compound designer, Stephen Damulira.

Prosecution alleged that the four conspired to grab plots of land in Makerere, Kampala.

Mugoya reportedly hired Ssengoba and Kajeke to forge a consent judgement on February 26.

The judgement indicated that he had acquired the land from Daniel Mbusi, Sajjabi Matovu and Harold Nsambu Matovu.

Mugoya and Ssengoba were released on bail and ordered to report to the court on July 8.

Kajeke and Damulira were not in court.

The Police have been hunting for Mugoya for a while, Kampala Extra Police spokesman Simeo Nsubuga said.

“Mugoya was summoned to the CID headquarters but he did not appear.”

Recently, the Judicial Service Commission dismissed Mugoya over allegations of corruption and abuse of office.

Commission secretary John Kashaka told Parliament that Mugoya had become “chronically corrupt.”

He has also been cited in several land wrangles in the city. Mugoya was involved in a wrangle pitting him against Buganda Kingdom when he claimed that Plot 291 in Kisenyi, a city slum, belonged to him.

He claimed that he acquired the land from the Uganda Land Commission.

The plot near the Nnabagereka Primary School was occupied by tenants, whom the Government relocated to Makindye Division.

But the Buganda Land Board insisted that the 5.77 acres of land belonged to Kabaka Muwenda Mutebi.

Recently, the Kampala Central MP, Erias Lukwago, accused Mugoya of fencing off another piece of land in Mumbuzi, Kisenyi.