The Anti-Corruption court has this afternoon handed yet another 15-year jail sentence to troubled Geoffrey Kazinda, the former principal accountant in the Office of Prime Minister.
Justice Margret Tibulya found Kazinda guilty of three counts of forgery, accumulating abnormal wealth (illicit enrichment) and financial loss instituted against him by the Inspectorate of Government back in 2016.
During the investigations, the Inspectorate of Government found out that between 2009 and 2012, Kazinda was enjoying a standard of living way above his known sources of income, possessing and amassing wealth amounting to over Shs 4.6 billion.
The investigations revealed that Kazinda had rented Constellation Suites in Nakasero for ten months at a cost of Shs 210 million, had three plots of land in Bukoto valued at Shs 3.6 billion, owned high-end cars including a BMW, Mercedes Benz ML class, Dodge Saloon all valued at Shs 769 million.
According to prosecution, this was far above his known and declared annual income of Shs 84 million thus raising a red flag on how he acquired them. On cross-examining several witnesses and exhibits brought before court, the presiding justice found out that Kazinda had concealed the properties when he registered them under names of different persons.
For instance, court heard that Kazinda had rented the suite in the names of his friends. However, from the evidence adduced before court, there were invoices that had been paid and signed by the accused. More evidence also indicated that the said cars had all been bought in the names of his friends with some testifying before court that they had been ordered by Kazinda to procure the cars in their names.
Kazinda had also transferred three land titles for pieces of land situated in Bukoto to an educational organisation, Brothers of Christian Instruction as a donation. However, court found out that he remained in full control of the pieces of land in question.
In his defense, Kazinda denied owning any of the said properties but argued that he could afford to live such a high standard lifestyle given that fact his family had a wealthy financial background and that they had received huge sums of money when they sold off some of the properties including part of the land that currently hosts Entebbe airport.
Kazinda also argued that apart from his family wealth, he had worked tirelessly for 18 years before he joined the public service. Considering his point of argument, justice Tibulya wondered why Kazinda didn't declare all his sources of income to the Inspectorate of Government as required by the law which according to her raised suspicion.
"According to the law, a senior public servant is required to declare all, not some, of their source of income to the inspectorate of government," Tibulya said in her judgment.
The judge also put into account that the accused had worked for 18 years but rather found that the said ground could not explain the mismatch between his income and standard of living.
"Let's says that for all the 18 years he had a similar income of Shs 84 million, this would amount to Shs 1.512 billion which is still low compared to the value of money in this case."
After his conviction, prosecution led by Sarah Birungi called for a stronger sentence and confiscation of three plots of land in Bukoto.
"This will give him and other public officers a lesson that corruption is bad," Birungi argued.
Kazinda who was representing himself in the matter, requested the judge to hand him a non-custodial sentence given the fact that he is a first-time offender who had already spent four years in prison before the trial and almost four and a half on remand. He also prayed that the court doesn't confiscate the property in question.
Considering mitigating factors from either side, the judge highlighted that the convict was not showing any signs of remorse.
"The convict has not learnt anything to date. He is not even willing to give up the property he owned through illicit enrichment," justice Tibulya said.
Moments after, the lady justice sentenced Kazinda to five years of imprisonment on each count adding that the sentences should be served consecutively.
"This means he will serve 15 years (starting from the date of judgement). I also order for confiscation of the said properties; the court cannot allow him to enjoy fruits obtained from a crime...allowing them to retain proceeds of their crime would be unfair. At such a time when the country is struggling to pay debts over such people, a custodial sentence is inevitable," said Tibulya.
Kazinda has been in Luzira prison since 2013 when he was convicted of unlawfully possessing government stores and sentenced to five years and despite finishing the said sentence, he was held in prison due to pending charges that continue to be brought against him by the state.
Single-handedly, Kazinda challenged most of the criminal charges brought against him in the Constitutional court which later permanently stayed all corruption proceedings against him. He also got another win from the same court when it quashed his conviction on embezzlement and conspiracy to defraud government charges.
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