Karamoja iron sheets: Minister Kitutu’s senior assistant secretary remanded
The senior assistant secretary in the Ministry of Karamoja Affairs, Joshua Abaho has been remanded to Luzira prison on charges of corruption and conspiring with his boss Minister Mary Goretti Kitutu to defraud the government of its iron sheets.
Abaho has been remanded by the Anti-Corruption Court Chief Magistrate Joan Aciro after he denied the offences.
Abaho walked himself to court on Thursday following criminal summons that were previously issued against him. He was asked to appear in court today to give his side of the story on his role in the Office of the Prime Minister iron sheets scandal.
He is charged with the loss of public property and corruption on the same case file where Kitutu and her brother Michael Naboya Kitutu were previously charged and granted bail.
Kitutu and Naboya had also returned to court as investigations into the alleged diversion of iron sheets continue. The Karamoja Affairs minister is accused of diverting 9,000 iron sheets and giving her brother 100 pieces of tsaid iron sheets
The Court has heard that during the month of January 2023 at the office of the Prime Minister’s stores in Namanve in Mukono district being in public office in the position of senior assistant secretary Ministry of Karamoja Affairs, Abaho diverted 5,500 iron sheets of gauge 28 belonging to the State.
The prosecution avers that the said iron sheets were meant for the Karamoja Community Empowerment Programme but he diverted them for purposes unrelated to those for which they were intended, and for the benefit of third parties.
According to the Prosecution, Abaho received the said iron sheets by virtue of his position for purposes of custody and distribution under the said programme.
Abaho presented five sureties including; Kenneth Mugumya Tebijuka the assistant commissioner in the Ministry of Education who is also his elder brother, Johnson Musinguzi, his cousin and assistant commissioner Ministry of Works and Transport and Geoffrey Ndiwalana, the engineer for Makindye Sabagabo Municipal Council.
Other sureties are; Simon Peter Kasyate, his nephew who is also the Deputy Director of Public and Corporate Affairs at Kampala Capital City Authority, and Simon Tumwesigye Karokora, his cousin who also doubles as the customs supervisor at Uganda Revenue Authority.
Court has adjourned the matter to May 2, 2023, when it will rule on his bail application.
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