By Musa Mbogo
Former Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) Principal Accountant Geoffrey Kazinda has laid out a detailed challenge to an appeal filed by the Attorney General in the Supreme Court, arguing that the case has no legal foundation and is the sole reason he remains in prison.
Kazinda is currently serving a 25-year jail sentence for corruption-related offences, but he insists that his continued incarceration is unlawful. His argument centers on the timing and handling of an appeal lodged by the Attorney General, Mr. Kiwanuka Kiryowa, to block his release.
According to Kazinda, the appeal was filed outside the constitutionally provided 60-day period within which such matters must be brought before the Supreme Court. He says that once this deadline lapses, an appeal can only be admitted if the court first grants permission to extend time or formally validates the late filing.
He argues that in this case, no such permission was granted. As a result, Kazinda says the appeal was improperly lodged and should not be recognized by court, describing the move as fraudulent and an abuse of the legal process.
Kazinda further claims that the disputed appeal has been used to justify keeping him in prison, despite earlier court orders that he says should have resulted in his release.
“This appeal was filed out of time and without the authority of court. It cannot legally stand,” he maintains.
Beyond the appeal itself, Kazinda also questions the legality of his sentence, saying his 25-year term was imposed after the Constitutional Court had already issued an injunction stopping his prosecution. In his view, that injunction rendered all subsequent proceedings, including his sentencing, unlawful.
Kazinda insists that if the AG’s appeal were struck out for being incompetent, there would be no legal obstacle to his freedom. He has therefore asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the appeal and order his immediate release.
He has also raised concerns about how the Supreme Court has so far handled the matter, saying the court declined to first hear his application seeking to strike out the appeal, instead giving priority to an application by the Kiryowa seeking to have the appeal validated. He notes that even after hearing the AG’s application, the court did not issue a clear decision confirming whether the appeal was properly before it.
“In the absence of a ruling validating the appeal, there is no competent case against me before the Supreme Court,” Kazinda argues.
The matter is expected to return to the Supreme Court on February 12th, when the justices will consider whether the failure by now-retired Justice Ezekiel Muhanguzi to sign the Constitutional Court judgment had a fatal impact on the case. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
