By Mulengera Reporters
For the last 19 months, two Ugandan telecom engineers Charles Kasirye and Amdan Mukwaya (in their late 30s) have been remand prisoners at Luzira prison facility.
This was after they were arrested in relation to the tampering, removal and stealing of 16 lithium batteries from one of ATC’s telecom transmission sites located on Bulaga hill outside Buloba town along Mityana Road in Wakiso district.
They were initially charged under Criminal case no. 350 of 2023 and subsequently under 141 of 2024 and 142 of 2024. Whereas 350 relates to the tampering, theft and criminal trespass case of Bulaga which occurred on 23rd March 2023 at Bulaga, the other two relate to similar offences that the duo is alleged to have separately committed on the ATC telecom transmission sites at Waina village in Luuka district and Entebbe market in Wakiso.
After being remanded in Luzira for 15 days over the Bulaga case, the duo was released on bail only to be re-arrested shortly after for the Waina and Entebbe telecom vandalism cases. This caused them to be once again arraigned before the same Makindye-based Utilities Court where Her Worship Gladys Kamasanyu had them formally charged and remanded back to Luzira where they have been for the last 19 months, according to their lawyer Malik Mbiro Mbowa.
They have spent much of 2025 being brought to stand trial in the Makindye Court under the three files. The prosecution of the two engineers is being conducted by state prosecutors from Uganda Communications Commission (UCC). The prosecution team is led by Dr. Abdul Salaam Waiswa and comprises of Counsel Nasim Kagawa and Kevin Bakulumpagi.
Last November 2025, the duo’s co-accused Lawrence Letti (aged 35) cracked and offered to plead guilty and give evidence against the two co-accused, on behalf of prosecution.
Letti, who was self-represented without a lawyer, reflected on the overwhelming evidence the UCC prosecutors had adduced before Court and opted to plead guilty.
His decision to give evidence against his co-accused greatly frightened Kasirye and Mukwaya, both of whom panicked and offered to plead guilty. That process was undertaken and concluded during the Tuesday 13th January 2026 Court session when Dr. Waiswa, took Court through the brief facts in the presence of the two accused persons and their lawyer Malik Mbiro.
THE BRIEF FACTS:
The brief facts were/are that on 23rd March 2023, the duo travelling in a grey Nissan Terrano (UAQ 740U) pulled up at the Bulaga site where the elderly security guard Okello Peter cordially interacted with them, having mistaken them to be ATC engineers who regularly come around to do maintenance checks aimed at ensuring the telecom transmission site is okay and operating well.
Letti Lawrence, a security guard who had been the duo’s friend, travelled with them that afternoon in the Nissan Terrano. Indeed, it was Letti who lured Okello into escorting him to the nearby clinic, having feigned sickness. The duo remained behind and broke into the telecom transmission shelter at the Bulaga site and quickly removed/stole the 16 lithium batteries.
On return, Okello realized that something was amiss on the site he had been deployed to guard and secure. He reported to his supervisors at ATC headquarters and gratefully, he had noted down the number plate of the vehicle. A case was reported to Police by ATC as the complainant and subsequently Police intercepted the vehicle in Bweyogerere, months later.
As investigations continued, Police detectives attached to UCC managed to arrest two scrap dealers-Abdul Makanga and Vincent Sempala to whom the stolen ATC lithium batteries had been sold. And it was them who provided information leading to the arrest of Mukwaya and Kasirye. Makanga and Sempala even came to Court and gave very incriminating evidence against Mukwaya and Kasirye.
Prosecution told Court that the 16 lithium batteries were valued at a total of Shs216m. Yet Mukwaya and Kasirye had casually sold each one of them to the scrap dealers at just Shs400,000.
The duo had been charged with removal/tampering with telecom transmission installation contrary to section 84 of Uganda Communications Act; theft and criminal trespass all of which are offences under the Penal Code Act. The three offences each carry a maximum prison sentence of 5 years, 10 years and year respectively.
Having pleaded guilty and accepted all the offences, H/W Kamasanyu convicted the duo of Kasirye and Mukwaya during the Court session of Tuesday 13th January 2026. She went ahead to sentence them to 3 years, 3 years and 6 months respectively for each of the three counts. All the sentences are to run concurrently.
Having deducted the 15 days they had served on remand before the grant of the short-lived bail she had released them on in 2023 (before they were re-arrested to face the Waina and Entebbe charges), Kamasanyu declared the three respective sentences as lasting for 2 years and 11 months, 2 years & 11 months and 5 months and 15 days respectively.
DECLINING COMPENSATION:
In sentencing them that way, Kamasanyu disregarded the prosecution’s submission in aggravating factors whereby Dr. Waiswa (who had already presented 5 witnesses and was ready to prosecute the case to its conclusion) had implored her to also order the duo to part with Shs216m in order to compensate ATC for the 16 lithium batteries the Corporation lost as a result of their mischief.
Dr. Waiswa had also submitted on the Shs400,000 the two engineers got from selling per battery as money that Court had the jurisdiction to compel them to surrender for the restoration of their victim (ACT).
The UCC legal chief had cited the legal authority under Section 197 of the Magistrates Courts Act which he said gives the trial Magistrate the discretion to order for such compensation. However, the Magistrate disregarded this and never made any reference to it as she read out her sentencing.
Prosecution had also asserted that ATC deserved compensation because it had incurred a lot of pecuniary loss to be able to restore connectivity days after the 23rd March 2023 theft incidence, including parting with Shs50m, as was asserted in evidence that was given by one of the prosecution witnesses who was an official of ATC.
The prosecution had implored Court to consider the fact that the two engineers aren’t ordinary Ugandans but professionals who knew the inconvenience their mischief would cause not just to ATC but to millions of telecom services consumers, the telecom companies and the GoU, which lost tax revenue as a result of the resultant connectivity disruptions.
It was also submitted that such vandalism offences were on the increase in the country and the same was profoundly hurting the economy of Uganda. This is something Kamasanyu seemed to have agreed with when she likened telecom vandalism to economic sabotage capable of hugely threatening the country’s national security.
In her judgment, the Magistrate indicated that there was need to protect the greater public interest by handing down severe sentencing that can serve the deterrent purpose. She also spoke about ordinary Ugandans’ access to health emergency, banking and educational services becoming constrained as a result of such telecom vandalism.
She seemed to have disregarded the plea by the two ‘economic saboteurs’’ defense lawyer Malik Mbiro Mboowa who, while submitting on mitigation factors, had referred to the fact that they deserved to be immediately released on the account of the fact that they are family men each with two wives, seven children and two homes (in Bwebajja, Seguku, Kireka and Iganga).
The defense lawyer had also asserted that his two clients are young men who need to be released immediately so that they go and resume being economically active so that they pay taxes and contribute to nation-building.
He also claimed that they had also contributed to the money which the state had used to remunerate/facilitate UCC prosecutors, transport witness and fund investigations. He said they used to earn a monthly salary of Shs2.5m while working at telecom Company Innovice Telecom International, off which they would be deducted some monthly money as PAYE.
He also said they are remorseful and ready to become reformed useful citizens. He demonstrated to Court that Amdan Mukwaya was now a fully reformed citizen which is why he has spent the last 19 months preaching Islamic religion to fellow inmates. He also spoke about the duo’s children who have missed school plus wives and elderly parents who have endured a lot of deprivation in the duo’s absence.
In disagreeing with the defense lawyer, the Magistrate in her judgment (which was delivered 40 minutes after prosecution and defense lawyers had made their closing arguments) referred to the fact the accused persons still face trial over similar offence under the Waina and Entebbe case files.
She also quoted prosecution witnesses Abdul Makanga and Vincent Sempala who told Court how the two engineers Mukwaya and Kasirye had been in the business of supplying/selling to them lithium batteries-related scrap for not less than four (4) years.
The Magistrate also seemed intrigued about the fact that even when this is very expensive material, the scrap dealers casually dismantle such batteries and use the resultant spare parts to make or produce rechargeable solar lights which they sell cheaply to their customers.
The Magistrate also disregarded the defence lawyer’s argument that his clients deserved to be released immediately on grounds that they never benefited from the 2023 bail they were granted and released upon because it was short-lived as they were re-arrested shortly after (in order to face other vandalism-related charges over the Waina village and Entebbe market charges). (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
