Uganda court finds OPM official guilty

Kampala. That was the verdict reached by court yesterday in the case where Geoffrey Kazinda, the interdicted principal accountant in the Office of the Prime Minister, was accused of forgery among other crimes.

Justice David Wangutusi of the Anti-Corruption Division ruled that Kazinda, whose trial has been the talk of the nation, was guilty of 29 counts of fraud as had been indicated by the prosecution.

Key among the accusations was that Kazinda forged more than 20 signatures of his then boss and permanent secretary at the OPM, Mr Pius Bigirimana, with intent to defraud the institution.

Among the forged documents were security papers and withdraw forms (both very high sensitive documents that are used in transaction of huge sums of money), which were recovered by the police from Kazinda’s home in Bukoto, a Kampala suburb.

Whereas no money was lost in this case, prosecution said Kazinda had intentions of defrauding OPM if the situation had not been arrested early.

Addressing a packed and tense courtroom, Justice Wangutusi said prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt that Kazinda committed all the 29 offences. “This court finds that prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and does not agree with the assessors who advised this court to acquit him.”

On forging Mr Bigirimana’s signatures, the judge said expert evidence proved the forgery and noted that Kazinda was behind the move. “In my opinion, PW9 (Mr Bigirimana) was not the author of the signature on the specimen, so who forged them?” asked Judge Wangutusi. “The circumstances under which these documents were found being hidden in a student’s room in his mother’s house and yet they were very sensitive documents, it’s traceable to him (Kazinda).”