UPDF officer jailed for failure to protect war materials

By Michael Odeng        

A UPDF officer has been convicted and sentenced to three years in prison for failing to protect war materials and unlawful possession of ammunitions.

Corporal Daniel Mangeni was convicted and sentenced by the General Court Martial, Chairman Maj. Gen Levi Karuhanga on Friday.

"Prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused committed all the alleged offences," Karuhanga ruled on Friday. The court also considered the two years the accused spent in detention at Makindye Military police headquarters in Kampala.  

Karuhanga handed Mangeni three years on two counts of failure to protect war materials and two years for unlawful possession of firearms. The sentences will run concurrently.

The convict also faces dismissal from the army with disgrace.

Karuhanga ruled that in the case of failure to protect war material, prosecution proved that Mangeni was found in possession of arms and ammunition, which was illegal.

"We find that the accused was at the time in illegal possession of the arms and ammunitions," Karuhanga ruled.

Prosecution says that Mangeni was arrested on September 8, 2013 after hiring a vehicle to take them to Busia at sh200,000 for a mission, but at Owen Falls Dam Police arrested him and found him with two pistols and eleven rounds of ammunition.