Imprisoning you no longer makes sense; refund gov’t  money you embezzled -Judge directs Kazinda

The Anti-Corruption Court in Kololo has said that giving former principal accountant in the Prime Minister’s office, Godfrey Kazinda another jail sentence would be a waste of time and consequently ordered him to refund the money he misappropriated.

Among the many cases Kazinda has been battling with is one where he was accused of embezzling shs306 million which was meant for the Peace Recovery and Development Plan for Northern Uganda(PRDP).

On Thursday, Kazinda was convicted of embezzling the shs306 million by Justice Lawrence Gidudu of the Anti-Corruption Court.

“There is unchallenged evidence that A1(Kazinda)was the final destination of the money.Considering that the bogus accountability was found with him for all the money prosecution witness one applied for and never received leaves no doubt that A1 manipulated the process to receive the money,” Justice Gidudu said.

According to the judge, Kazinda received the money meant for PRDP workshop and in turn made false accountability; a fact the judge said the former principal accountant converted the money to himself instead of government.

“I am satisfied that the prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt charges of embezzlement against A1(Kazinda) in counts one, two and three. I find A1 guilty on each of the three counts and convict him on each count.”

Sentence

Having found him guilty, the state prosecutors asked court to hand a custodial sentence to Kazinda since he is a repeat offender having been convicted of similar charges earlier but also asked that he is asked to compensate government for the money it lost.

However, Kazinda refuted the claims that he is a repeat offender noting that investigations for all the charges against him were done at the same time but the cases were separated to ease prosecution.

He said since 2012 when he was arrested, charged and imprisoned, he has never left prison and this means he has not got chance to prove that he has reformed.

The former principal accountant in the Office of the Prime Minister asked court he should be given a lenient sentence since he disbursed trillions of money under the  Peace Recovery and Development Plan for Northern Uganda(PRDP)and that the shs306 million was a small amount that government lost.

Reading his sentence, Justice Lawrence Gidudu reasoned that Kazinda is not a repeat offender since he has never left prison since 2012 when he was arrested and sent to prison.

“The convict has never been out of prison to commit another crime. The notion that he is a repeat offender therefore doesn’t work here. If he had finished his sentence and gone out to commit a similar crime, we would have treated him as repeat offender,” Justice Gidudu reasoned.

The judge said that it wouldn’t make sense to imprison Kazinda now since for the last decade he has been in prison over similar changes.

“I don’t consider more imprisonment for person who has been in prison for 10 and more years still counting. More imprisonment doesn’t add value to him. Sending you to prison is no longer news. You are now immune. If government gets this money and puts it back where it was stolen is value. Sentencing you to prison is no longer valid for me. Rather, if  extra money for government to me makes sense.”

Justice Gidudu consequently imposed a 366 currency points punishment to the former principal accountant in the OPM which translates into shs7.3 million and on failure, he is jailed 12 months.

The judge also directed Kazinda to return the shs306 million that government lost during the Peace Recovery and Development Plan for Northern Uganda(PRDP).

He has also been disqualified from holding any public office for a period of 10 years.

“If you feel aggrieved, you have right to appeal at court of appeal within 14 days.”

Previous sentences

Previously, Kazinda was convicted by the same court of causing shs20billion financial loss to government and was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment as well as refunding shs19.2 billion to government.

In 2013, he was sentenced to five years imprisonment by the  Anti –Corruption court 's Justice David Wangutsi  for abuse of office, two years for forgery and two years for unlawful possession of government stores.

He later in 2019 won an appeal against the conviction but this came a year after he had already served the sentence.

In 2021, Kazinda was jailed 15 years after being found guilty of illicit enrichment and consequently, court directed that his property be confiscated.