David Ijjo & Adam Nuwamanya
Chief Magistrates Court at Buganda Road has fixed August 22 for the mention of the case where City Lawyer Male Mabirizi accuses the First son and Senior Presidential Advisor on special operations Muhoozi Kainerugaba of being a public nuisance, then conspiracy on the co-accused; the Igara East legislator Michael Mawanda Maranga and the renowned events promoter, Balam Barugahaara. All the charges are against their contravention of section 180 of the UPDF Act.
According to the prosecution, the case was formerly filed by Mabirizi in 2022 at City Hall Court and the Director of Public Prosecutions decided to take over when it was against one accused (Muhoozi Kainerugaba) but many questions lingered on how Mabirizi ended up adding on the other co-accused.
In this, the prosecution, therefore, prayed that Court strikes out the other charges and the co-accused that were later amended by Mabirizi on the charge sheet.
However, the presiding Chief Magistrate Ronald Kayizzi declined to grant the prosecutions’ prayer, citing that removing the other co-accused is only within the powers of the high court but accused the City Hall Court of erroneously receiving Mabirizi’s fresh prosecution yet the Director Public Prosecutions had taken over the case that was against one accused.
Muhoozi’ legal team led by Mukasa Mbidde laughs off Mabirizi's application and accuses him of irregularly adding the other accused to the charge sheet when the DPP has taken over the case.
“In fact, Mabiriizi needs to be arrested and questioned. How did he access the charge sheet that was already in court to add on other people,” said Mukasa Mbidde.
Mbidde also adds that they have no objection to the prosecution continuing with the charge sheet that frames only Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
Lawyer Male Mabiriizi, who was absent during the court session first accuses the presiding magistrate Ronald Kayizzi of bias and breach of the Judicial code of conduct by presiding over a court session in time that is not the allocated time in the summons.
“The summons clearly indicated that the session would be at 2:00 pm. How come there was this change of time and I wasn’t informed? queried Mabirizi. “Kayizzi must be prosecuted in the Judicial service commission.”
According to Mabirizi, the DPP takes over cases whose charges have been approved by the court and therefore he asserts that it is within his powers as a private prosecutor to amend the names of the accused.
“I am the one prosecuting them, the DPP takes on cases whose charges have been confirmed by the court so why should they as how I amended the charges” asserted Mabirizi.
At the time of exiting court perimeters, one of the events promoter and events promoter Balaam Barugahaara pondered a private talk with Mabirizi and severely questioned him what could be his motive.
“Let Mabirizi speak out what he is looking for. If it necessitates, he can be appointed a resident District Commissioner of say Rakai,” teased Barugahaara.
Mabirizi asserts that the co-accused thought they would argue out in his absence and be cleared of the charge sheet but they were condensed when the magistrate referred their deletion to the high court.
Background of the Case
In 2022 when Male Mabirizi was on his sentence in jail over charges of contempt of court, he filed the suit against the First son and Senior Presidential Advisor on special operations Muhoozi Kainerugaba accusing him of public nuisance which contravenes Section 180 of the UPDF Act.
Due to incarceration, Mabirizi did not have time to follow up on the case which led the DPP to take it over. However, based on his argument that the DPP takes over cases in which charges have been approved by the court, Mabirizi used another MK Movement activity that took place on 10th October 2022 to add on his prosecution other people including Hon. Michael Mawanda, Balam Barugahaara and several others.
