HIGH COURT TO HEAR KAHONDA BAIL APPLICATION TOMORROW

By www.mknewslink.com reporters
In Kampala–
High Court is set to sit tomorrow and hear the bail application for Ruhinda county MP; Hon.Donozio Kahonda who is currently in jail at Kirinya government prison.

Jinja Chief Magistrate John Francis Kaggwa on June 7 convicted the embattled legislator and sentenced him to nine months in jail for forgery.
Kahonda later applied for bail and court fixed the hearing on August 16, a date he was not comfortable with.
A directive by Chief Justice Bart Katureebe is behind the fast-tracking of the bail application hearing for Ruhinda County MP Dononzio Kahonda.

Kahonda’s lawyer Caleb Mwesigwa says that before the MP moved to formally contest the August 16 date, his constituents petitioned the Chief Justice Bart Katureebe seeking his intervention in the matter.
Mwesigwa revealed that this petition prompted the Chief Justice to write to the Principal Judge Yorokamu Bamwine who later wrote to the resident Judge Jinja High Court, Justice Eva Luswata for action.
In a July 5 letter from the Chief Justice’s Chambers, his personal assistant, Aloysius Natwijuka, wrote to the Ruhinda Constituency petitioners explaining to them the actions taken so far.

He says the Chief Justice received the Ruhinda petition and acted upon it by writing to the Principal Judge who is the Head of the High Court to intervene.” reads in part, Natwijuka’s letter.
This administrative intervention comes at a time when supporters of the jailed MP continue to accuse Justice Minister Kahinda Otafiire, a political rival in Ruhinda County in Mitooma District, of using his office to harass Kahonda.

They recently camped at State House Entebbe demanding for Kahonda’s freedom. Kahonda trounced Kahinda in the 2016 parliamentary elections.
In a letter dated June 29, 2017 Chief Justice Bart Katureebe directs the Principal Judge Yorokamu Bamwine to identify another judge to hear Kahonada’s bail application as soon as possible.
Kahonda appeared before Court on Thursday last week for his bail hearing but this could not proceed due to the absence of a prosecutor to challenge his release as all state attorneys countrywide were on strike over low pay.
In the circumstances, Justice Luswata declined to preside over Kahonda’s bail application explaining that proceeding in the absence of a prosecutor would be a miscarriage of justice.
MP Kahonda’s bail application hearing was then adjourned to Monday July 24, 2017.
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