The Nakasero-based Anti-Corruption Court will today, ( Tuesday, October 1, 2024) deliver a ruling in a case where Busiki County MP Paul Akamba is challenging his trial over alleged corruption charges.
Akamba is seeking a court declaration that his trial, in which he is accused of demanding 20% of the Uganda Human Rights Commission’s budget, be rendered null and void on the grounds that his rights were violated.
Akamba’s lawyer Jude Byamukama, in his application, stated that he was held incommunicado by security operatives, who denied him access to his lawyers, relatives, and friends. Byamukama further argued that he was subjected to both psychological and physical torture, constituting a violation of his fundamental rights.
In August, the head of the Anti-Corruption Court, Justice Lawrence Gidudu, halted the trial after MP Akamba petitioned the court under the Human Rights Enforcement Act of 2019. Justice Gidudu emphasised that once a human rights issue is raised, it must be resolved before the trial can continue.
Akamba, together with Yusuf Mutembuli, MP for Bunyole East in Butaleja district, and Cissy Namujju, the Woman MP for Lwengo district, is facing corruption charge at the Anti-Corruption Court. They were charge with offence of Corruption contrary to section 2(e) and 26 of the Anti- Corruption Act of 2019 as amended. The offence attracts 10 years in jail, a fine of sh4.8m or both. In addition, a person convicted of corruption charges is barred from holding public office for a period of 10 years.
The trial had started and Mariam Wangadya the chairperson of the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC, testified as the first witness but Akamba challenged the trial on grounds that his fundamental rights were violated allegedly by the security operatives.
He contends that he was brutally arrested within the Anti-Corruption Court upon being granted bail on June15, 2024 and was subsequently detained illegally in an ungazetted location.
It is alleged that Mutembuli, Akamba, and Cissy Namujju on May13, 2024 at Hotel Africana in Kampala, solicited from Wangadya, the chairperson of (UHRC) 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 parliament of Uganda to increase the budget of UHRC. They denied the charge and are out on bail
