Uganda: Constitutional Court Clarifies Geoffrey Kazinda Ruling

The Constitutional court has made itself clear that the Inspectorate of Government should stop it’s continued prosecution of the jailed former permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minsiter Geoffrey Kazinda on charges of illicit enrichment until the Supreme court makes a final decision on his corruption related charges.

The unanimous decision of justices consisting of Eva Luswata , Christopher Gashirabake , Oscar Kihika, Moses Kazibwe and Dr. Asa Mugengyi is to stay in place until such a time that the Supreme court pronounces itself in the matter .

The Constitutional court’s clarification arises out of an application filed by Kazinda while accusing the state of disobeying lawful court orders that halted his prosecution on August, 7, 2020.

In his application, Kazinda stated that having been dissatisfied , the state appealed this order before the Supreme Court and by the time an order of stay was issued, the lower courts had gone ahead to discharge him of some offences.

The five justices have however stated in their judgment that the Supreme Court doesn’t explicitly mention in its order of stay that there should be any continued prosecution of Kazinda in the lower courts.

“It is not stated in the order of the Supreme Court that the respondent (Attorney General) continues the prosecution. If the Supreme Court had intended that the respondent should continue prosecuting the applicant (Kazinda), it would have explicitly stated so,” the five justices said.

“If we were to say that prosecution should proceed until the criminal matters are determined, this would mean that the order for a stay of execution would have resolved the intended appeal to the Supreme Court. Our understanding of the order of stay by the Supreme Court would be that the applicant should not be discharged from the said criminal cases until the determination of the appeal by the Supreme Court.” The justices however noted that the order of stay doesn’t resolve the appeal at the Supreme court but rather means that Kazinda should not he discharged until the appeal is disposed off.

Previously Kazinda has been convicted of a series of offences including abuse of office , forgery, embezzlement, causing a financial loss and he is serving various sentences handed down by the Anti-corruption court .