The Karamoja Affairs Minister Mary Goretti Kitutu was denied bail by the Kololo Anti-Corruption Court due to insufficient sureties after she was charged with stealing iron sheets intended for the weak in the Karamoja subregion.
Kitutu this week urged the court to release her on bail citing her poor health, elderly age, having a fixed place of abode within the court’s jurisdiction, and giving up two titles for land in the Wakiso area. Her attorneys were led by Micheal Wamasebu John Musiime and Jude Byamukama.
The minister also introduced Dr. Joel Wadawa, a plastic surgeon at Kiruddu Hospital, Amb. Simon Mulongo, Seth Wambede, the MP for Mbale City Northern Division, and her husband, Micheal George Kitutu, Uganda’s special ambassador to the African Union.
Yet according to the court’s top magistrate Joan Aciro, only one of the minister’s four sureties is sufficient to allow for her release on bail.
She claimed that three of Kitutu’s sureties, including her husband George Kitutu, had not provided evidence of their ability to stand surety in this particular situation.
The case has been postponed until Friday, April 14, when the aforementioned sureties are anticipated to appear in court to provide their credentials so that the judge can decide whether or not to grant the minister bail.
The minister is accused of stealing iron sheets intended for the weaker residents of Karamoja along with her younger brother Michael Naboya Kitutu and Mr. Joshua Abaho, the senior assistant secretary in the Ministry of Karamoja Affairs in the Office of the Prime Minister.
They are charged with two charges of misplacing public property and one count of fraud conspiracy.
