Kazinda convicted

By Sania Babirye

Anti corruption court judge Margret Tibulya find guilty and consequently convict the former principle accountant in the office of the prime minister Geoffrey Kazinda on charges of illicit enrichment for allegedly maintaining a lifestyle beyond his known source of income.

Ali Munira the PRO of the IGGs office says that the said sentence is meant to be a deterrent to the other would be public servant offenders.

The conviction comes after the constitutional court ordered that Kazinda be released and all pending charges dismissed since they are all related to the first charge he was convicted of in 2013 and has since served his sentence.

However, the IGG says that they are not bound by the constitutional court ruling since they had over whelming evidence to prove the said charges against Kazinda.

I,GG accused Kazinda of amassing wealth amounting to 4.6 billion shillings which is not inline with his known income.

The said case was the last case pending in court against Kazinda and it saw him still held up in Luzira prison despite being set free by the court of appeal and recently the constitution court .

Kazinda had stated that its unfair and unjust that the Inspectorate of government is using the said case to deny him his freedom yet even the constitutional court dismissed charges against him in relation to the said case.

The frustrated Kazinda had claimed that for the past 8 years since he was first charged in 2013, the IGG had failed to complete the said case denying him his right to speedy trial and justice.

According to the IGG, Kazinda's estimated income as a public servant from 2009 to 2012 was 83.7 million shillings.

Kazinda has been in Luzira prison since 2013 when he was convicted on unlawfully possessing government stores and sentenced to five years .

By the time of his arrest on illicit enrichment charges, IGG found out that Kazinda had rented Constellation suites in Nakasero and apartments in Kampala for ten months at a cost of 210 million shillings, had a house and land at Kyadondo , Mengo West valued at 3.1bn, cars including BMW,Mercedes Benz, ML class, Dodge Saloon car all valued at 769 million shillings and diverting over 20bn government funds.