It is alleged that on that day, Dr Kabugo was at a night club in Masaka town in the company of Namugenyi. It is further alleged that the two had a quarrel and that Namugenyi chose to leave the night club, rushed out and quickly asked Kanyaaga, a motorcycle rider, to take her home.
In court yesterday, Dr Kabugo was not allowed to say anything after the state prosecutor, Mr Yasin Ramadhan Ntaalo, read out the charges. He had no lawyer in court. He was told that the charges against him were to be heard by the High Court.
The Daily Monitor: Wednesday, 3rd Feb 2010
Health Ministry takes blame for faulty Chogm ambulances
The Ministry of Health has taken blame for causing the country a loss of Shs1.7 billion, following a rush procurement of 23 defective ambulances for Chogm delegates in 2007.
Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee on Monday, the ministry’s accounting officer, Mr Sam Zaramba, said the country got a raw deal from the purchase, even though there was an opportunity to reject it.
The PAC committee, basing on the Criminal Investigation Directorate (CID) report, discovered that the ambulances did not conform to the specifications of the Ministry of Health as earlier agreed.
According to the CID brief, the ambulances lacked working lamps; the available inner light was not adjustable and could not provide enough light for emergency treatment. The instrument cabinet were missing and instead of 10 litre oxygen cylinders, the ambulances had 5.6 litre cylinders.
The drivers of the ambulances also complained that they were not well protected from patients, exposing them to contagious disease and disturbances in case of mentally-ill patients.
The Daily Monitor: Wednesday, 3rd Feb 2010
Court to decide on access to oil information case today
Nakawa Court will today decide whether citizens have a constitutional right to access information on the recently discovered petroleum resources and its exploitation.
Chief Magistrate Deo Ssejjemba is set to pass the ruling in the first litigation about the newly-discovered oil, the government is defending its decision to conceal oil agreements it has signed with foreign oil companies. The case was brought under the Access to Information Act by Daily Monitor journalists, Charles Mwanguhya Mpagi and Angelo Izama.
They are seeking a court declaration that the public interest in disclosure of production –sharing agreements/oil prospecting and exploitation agreement is greater than any harm that may exist to a third party- especially the oil companies.
However, the government defends its refusal to make oil wealth agreements public citing confidentiality and national security grounds.
The Daily Monitor: Wednesday, 3rd Feb 2010
URA sues lands body
The Uganda Revenue Authority has sued the Uganda Land Commission over alleged illegal transfer of its land in Fort Portal to one Stephen Mugenyi.
The tax body claims that the land in dispute belongs to it and has always paid and continues to pay property rates to Fort Portal Municipal Council. URA claims to have acquired the land in April 2007 after ULC transferred it into the body’s names from that of Ministry of Finance
Now URA wants High Court to declare that it is the statutory owner of the land at Plot 4 Nyaika Avenue, Fort Portal Municipality measuring 1.55 acres. URA alleges that it lodged a caveat on the land but the same was ignored when allocating it to Mr Mugenyi. The document before court shows that Mr Mugenyi is threatening to evict the tax body and its employees.
The deputy registrar Fort Portal, Mr Boniface Wamala, issued an interim order restraining Mr Mugenyi from evicting URA from the land. URA alleges that ULC transferred the said land without notifying it or giving it a hearing.
The Daily Monitor: Wednesday, 3rd Feb 2010
CHOGM: Sh10b security funds probed
The public accounts committee probing the sh400b Commonwealth summit expenditure yesterday heard that about sh10b was given to security agencies but was never declared to the Auditor General.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, Jimmy Saamanya, explained that the money was given to the security agencies headed by the Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, to purchase the terrestrial trunked radio system network, known as TETRA.
He said the TETRA network was required to provide communication services across the security agencies and other agencies involved in the CHOGM preparations such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Civil Aviation Authority.
The money was provided by the Chinese government under the $106m national data transmission backbone infrastructure (NBI) and e-government.
Government officials return 56 CHOGM BlackBerry phones
A total of 56 BlackBerry phones acquired for the Commonwealth summit have been returned by Government officials following a parliamentary directive. ICT permanent secretary (PS) Jimmy Saamanya revealed this yesterday while appearing before the public accounts committee.
The committee gave the ICT ministry a three-week ultimatum to recover and dispose of all the 291 BlackBerry phones. The phones were distributed to ministers, permanent secretaries and MPs, but the Auditor General queried the action.