A scuffle ensued on Friday as Busiki Member of Parliament Paul Akamba was rearrested at the Anti-Corruption Court premises shortly after securing bail on corruption charges.
Akamba was earlier granted a cash bail of 13 million shillings by Chief Magistrate Joan Aciro, who also ordered him to deposit his passport with the court.
However, shortly after fulfilling the bail conditions, plainclothes armed personnel grabbed him as he exited the court premises, flanked by his supporters who screamed for his freedom.
During the scuffle, some individuals were kicked and battered as they tried to obstruct the MP’s rearrest. Pistols were visibly seen falling in the middle of the road as the armed personnel whisked Akamba away in a Noah vehicle, followed by another speeding vehicle branded with the Joint Anti-Terrorism Taskforce (JATT) logo.
Before Akamba’s arrest, some of the armed personnel were seen within court premises taking pictures and interacting with ordinary people who were from attending the court session.
A prison warden saw a suspicious-looking person taking pictures and asked him to identify himself since he did not have a press tag on him.
This was in a manner in which one could interpret that they were gathering information from the unsuspecting supporters of the legislators.
However, the armed man wearing Snickers, a blue jean and brownish t-shirt, and a cape pulled out his card showing Special Forces Command, and he was permitted to continue taking pictures.
URN is yet to understand why Akamba has been rearrested and whether he has pending charges and also to understand whether he is with SFC or JATT since they were all seen on the ground.
Akamba is not the only accused person who has secured bail from the courts of law but ends up being rearrested immediately within court premises.
The Chief Justices have in the past condemned this act describing it as one that not only is unconstitutional but also amounts to interference with the powers of the judiciary.
Akamba is jointly charged with Cissy Namujju, the Lwengo District Woman MP, and Bunyole West MP, Yusuf Mutembuli. Both Namujju and Mutembuli were earlier denied bail due to a lack of substantial surities.
The prosecution alleges that MPs Mutembuli, Akamba, and Namujju solicited an undue advantage of 20% of the anticipated budget of the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) for the financial year 2024/2025 from Mariam Wangadya, the Chairperson of UHRC, on May 13, 2024, at Hotel Africana in Kampala.
This was reportedly done by claiming they could exert improper influence over the decision-making of the Budget Committee of the Parliament of Uganda to increase the UHRC budget in exchange for the said undue advantage.
Trouble for the accused began last week after President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, in his State of the Nation Address, disclosed that he had overwhelming evidence of corruption among public officials.
Museveni claimed that the MPs allegedly colluded with accounting officers, the Ministry of Finance, and the Bank of Uganda to allocate public resources in exchange for kickbacks (bribes) and vowed to take action against them.
Museveni revealed that the evidence confirmed long-standing rumors of corruption within the government, particularly during the annual appropriation of taxpayers’ money.
He suggested the possibility of granting amnesty to corrupt MPs, but the majority of legislators interrupted his speech to prevent him from naming and shaming them in public.
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