Court of Appeal has Wednesday overturned Geoffrey Kazinda’s sentence of 5 years.
In 2013 Kazinda, a former Principal Accountant in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) charged and convicted by Anti- Corruption Court.
But the Higher Court ruled that Kazinda was wrongly convicted and erronously served a 5 year jail term that was handed to him for forging the signature of his former Boss and permanent secretary Pius Bigirimana.
Three justices ; Geoffrey Kiryabwire , Stephen Musota and Percy Tuhaise have overturned Kazinda’s conviction after faulting trial Highcourt judge David Wangututsi of failing to properly evaluate the evidence adduced before him and erroneously found Kazinda guilty of abuse of office, fogery and being in unlawful possession of government stores .
Judges on Wednesday concurred with Kazinda that police and prosecution did shoddy investigations that failed to prove that the cash withdraw forms and security papers bearing a forged signature of Bigirimnana were indeed found at the home of his(Kazinda ‘s ) mother Teopista Nanfuka.
This is because according to the evidence on record, there was neither a search certificate nor any photographic evidence tendered in court showing how the police search team retrieved the said documents from a room at Nanfuka’s residence .
The Justices were therefore persuaded by Kazinda’s submission that in absence of this photographic evidence, the documents which formed a basis of these charges could have been planted by the search team which went to search his mother’s home with documents in a bag and an envelope .
The court has gone ahead to set aside Kazinda’s conviction on charges of being in unlawful possession of government stores on grounds that by the time of his arrest on 22nd/July 2012 , he had not yet handed over office as principal Accountant in the OPM and therefore its not surprising that he was found with the ministry’s documents at his residence .
However even though the justices ordered for Kazinda’s immediate release , he can not leave prison because he is still serving another 5 year jail sentence handed to him by the Anti -corruption court for causing a 316 million shilings loss in forged fuel receipts to the OPM.
Kazinda has Also since appealed against the said sentence.
(Sanfu FM)