Four people who stood surety to satirical novelist Kakwenza Rukira Bashaija say they are inconvenienced with the delay to have them officially discharged of their duties.
They are; National Unity Platform Party Secretary General David Lewis Rubongoya, lawyer Julius Galisonga, Activist Job Kiija and Kololo Secondary School Teacher Annah Ashaba.
The group was on Wednesday expected to be officially discharged of their duties as Kakwenza ‘s sureties after he fled the country when he was being given bail on charges of offensive communication. But it was the third time that Buganda Road Magistrates Court has failed to discharge them on the basis that the trial Chief Magistrate Dr Douglas Singiza who has since been appointed as a Designate Judge of High Court is reportedly indisposed.
This was communicated by Grade One Magistrate Fidelis Otwao who adjourned the case to August 26th 2022 and further extended the warrant of arrest issued against Kakwenza.
In April 2022, the trial magistrate Dr Singiza issued a warrant of arrest against Kakwenza’s sureties such that they can each be compelled to pay 10 million shillings they committed themselves to pay in the event that Kakwenza who had been bailed at 500,000 shillings’ cash fails to turn up.
As a result, Kakwenza who is currently in Germany saying he is getting treatment for torture injuries inflicted on him allegedly by the Special Forces Command, started a fundraising drive on his twitter handle and he was able to raise the funds within seven hours, after the Court had made an order that the sureties pay the monies.
But despite the sureties paying the monies before the Diamond Trust Bank between April 11th and 13th, 2022, to date they are yet to be procedurally and formally discharged.
Kakwenza’s lawyer Samuel Wanda noted that the sureties are inconvenienced with the delay to discharge them and continued adjournments.
Wanda said when his clients paid the monies, they were technically discharged but legally they are not free which makes them fail to know their fate.
Lawyer Wanda also questioned the criteria the trial Magistrate uses to hear some cases before him and not to hear others, saying for weeks, Singiza had not heard their case, but then sat to hear Dr Kizza Besigye and Samuel Lubega Mukaaku bail case which was eventually granted.
According to Wanda, Kakwenza also filed the application to have the matter referred to High Court to investigate torture inflicted on him but the Buganda Road Court reportedly declined to handover the file.
He said that they are contemplating filing a petition to the Principal Judge Dr Flavian Zeija and the Chief Registrar Sarah Langa to have their issues solved.
Wanda further added that even the warrant of arrest extended against his client disturbs him because he went abroad to seek treatment and the case against him can be heard through zoom just like when he was still in prison.
Kakwenza is accused of having used his twitter handle @KakwenzaRukira to post a series of tweets about President Yoweri Museveni and his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
In one of the tweets, Kakwenza referred to the President as an election thief and in another, he calls Muhoozi overweight and intellectually bankrupt. These were seen as an attack on the two mentioned prominent persons and he was subsequently charged for disturbing their peace with no purpose of legitimate communication.
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