By Mulengera Reporters
On Monday, Makindye-based Utilities Court Chief Magistrate Gladys Kamasanyu protested the bringing of children (minors) in the Court room to witness accused persons, who happen to be their parents, in the dock struggling to defend themselves.
The Court session had been dedicated for telecommunications Engineers Hamdan Mukwaya and Charles Kasirye to defend themselves against criminal charges relating to tampering, vandalism and theft of lithium batteries belonging to American Towers Corporation (ATC).
The offences they are alleged to have committed are created under Uganda Communications Act and the Penal Code Act too.
Each costing up to Shs25m, the five lithium batteries were on 13th March 2023 allegedly stolen from ATC-owned telecom masts site located at Entebbe market.
ATC has over 5,000 such mast sites scattered across the country. They are the alternative power sources which are used to keep the telecommunications network on 24/7 in case the UEDCL power supply goes off or generators prove too costly.
Hamdan Mukwaya, who has been in detention at Luzira for more that the last 2 years, was here to begin his defence hearing after the state prosecutors from UCC produced enough evidence which the Magistrate based on to rule that he has a case to answer.
UCC has brought many witnesses to give oral evidence implicating the two engineers, including security guard Lawrence Letti, a co-accused who has since switched sides to become a prosecution witness.
As Eng Hamdan Mukwaya moved to take the witness stand, two minors (seemingly under 10) gestured towards him. They are among the children Mukwaya has from his two wives who luxuriously live at his Bwebajja and Seguku residences. These are his two homes where his two wives live.
The scene of the two little children emotionally reacting on their father, who has been away from home for the last two years, caught everybody’s attention.
“Why do all this to those two little children? Whose are they by the way? Who brought them to Court and why?” Kamasanyu, talkative as always, casually inquired.
The relatives, including Jessica Takwemazayo one of Mukwaya’s wives, explained that these are some of Mukwaya’s children. Kamasanyu explained that much as it’s not a crime to do so, her view was that it traumatizes to bring such children to be brought to Court to see their dad going through such vulnerability.
“In every home, daddy is the champion and the invincible hero. That’s why I would rather that you don’t expose those innocent little ones to something like this next time. It would be better to keep them out of this even when I know they will be inquisitive all the time asking where is daddy.”
She said the law has to strictly be applied including the accused person being hand-cuffed and subjected to all manner of restrictions, including very embarrassing ones. “We can’t bend any of those to accomodate those young children who, in my view, should be shielded from seeing their beloved dad go through such vulnerability. For he is their hero and source of inspiration.”
In the end, Kamasanyu backed off after Eng Hamdan Mukwaya indicated he was okay with everything. He said even his children were okay coming to sit in Court as he endures the intensive cross examination the UCC prosecutors subjected him to.
The children (who are in boarding school & sometimes go to visit in Luzira) initially pensively looked on as their father stood in the dock and sweated to answer hostile questions from the UCC prosecutors, but they later on got used and went about their business-occasionally moving out of the Court room to go and play from the waiting shelter outside.
In his defence, Hamdan Mukwaya (a graduate of UICT & Kyambogo University) pleaded the defence of alibi by making it clear that at the time the alleged crime was committed he was at his home in Seguku and not anywhere near the Entebbe market ATC mast site as is being alleged by prosecution. UCC prosecutors had earlier on relied on phone tracking technology to place him at the crime scene.
He also claimed that he was merely being witch-hunted by his bosses and workmates at the Indians-owned Innovis Telecom Services Ltd which is based in Kampala.
He claimed that he was being framed because in February 2023, he had resigned from his job as telecom engineer with that company after working for them for 13 years (2010-2023).
That when they refused to give him his terminal benefits, to which he is entitled, the company connived with some security operatives to subject to torture and to also concoct several vandalism cases against him.
“My former employer was unhappy when I filed a case at the Labor office in pursuit of my terminal benefits. They wanted me to withdraw my complaint at the Labor office but I refused and that’s why I’m in all this trouble,” submitted Eng Hamdan Mukwaya who for the first time accepted Her Worship Gladys Kamasanyu’s advice to put off his face mask. She told him that the mask would prevent him from being adequately audible as he gave his evidence.
The 40-year-old telecom engineer also claimed that Afande Deo Kikomeko, who heads security at ATC, has personal vendetta against him. That he wanted him to implicate some people, which he refused.
In perfect English, Eng Hamdan Mukwaya illustrated to Court how he was grabbed by three plain-clothed security operatives on the day he was arrested as he returned home from his morning prayers at a Mosque in Bwebajja.
Through all the Monday session, Eng Mukwaya maintained his innocence and his wife Jessica Takwemazayo is one of his witnesses who will be giving evidence to help prove where he was at the time the alleged crime was committed at ATC masts site near Entebbe market. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
