Festus Kasajja, a 72-year-old down town Kampala property mogul and commercial buildings owner has declared war on Administrator General Charles Kasibayo vowing to do all he can to make sure he doesn’t become a high court judge.
Saying he has suffered at the hands of Kasibayo as Administrator General, including losing Shs2.5bn after his Kisenyi land title was cancelled at the instigation of the AG, Kasajja says Kasibayo is simply morally unfit and too tainted to become a judge.
In his widely publicized petition to the Judicial Service Commission, Kasajja says that Kasibayo used his office and manipulated government records and cancelled his title in favor of James Dagirira, a notorious Kampala land dealer, who was used to pass on his land measuring 1 acre to John Bosco Muwonge, another Kampala tycoon who owns a larger chunk on the next plot. That Muwonge wanted to enlarge his land and sell it to KCCA to host the street vendors and batembeyis there.
The land in question is one acre and its located in Kisenyi Kampala central division along Kafumbe Mukasa road. Its Kibuga Block 12 Plot 556 in Kisenyi. Muwonge owns the next larger plot of land and wanted this one acre to expand and sell to KCCA through minister Minsa Kabanda.
It originally belonged to the estate of late Sendawula Sepuya from whose beneficiaries and daughters Festo Kasajja bought it at Ugx2.5bn. These included Elizabeth Nakalanzi and Gladys Nakimera. The process had been facilitated and approved by the office of Administrator General through the assistant AG Mathias Mickey Mwanje whose ouster from the headquarters was orchestrated by Kasibayo. The payment of the purchase price was all authenticated by the same AG office.
The cancellation and transfer of the land title was enabled by Charles Kasibayo, Dagirira James and John Karuhanga who was the acting Commissioner for land registration at the lands ministry. The aggrieved Festo Kasajja, who even refused the refund of his money as big people in Administrator General’s office mounted pressure on him after Muwonge offered to double the price, dragged the trio of Karuhanga, Kasibayo and Dagirira to the state house anti-corruption unit SHACU where a criminal investigations file was opened up against them.
He says the trio enabled Dagirira to quickly transfer the title Muwonge who later transferred the same to a company called Nterenfune whose only two shareholders are the Muwonge couple.
In his petition to the JSC, which was also published and advertised in monitor newspaper of Thursday, Kasajja says that the criminal investigations at SHACU are still ongoing and shares the file number of his case-SHACU/GEF/184/2024.
He claims that Kasibayo has been using his position as AG to influence the investigations by interfering with witnesses all of which he says makes him morally tainted and unfit to be made judge of the high court in a law abiding country like Uganda.
He says that he has all the evidence implicating Kasibayo in witness interference and he is ready to present it to the JSC. He adds that the circumstances under which his land title was cancelled were fraudulent which makes Kasibayo unfit to become a judge of the high court. He adds that if Kasibayo is allowed to become a judge, then the Ugandan Judiciary will lose its right to call itself an institution that stands for integrity.
He implores the JSC, which on 22nd August shortlisted Kasibayo to be among those to be interviewed with a view of making him a judge, to rescind his inclusion on that list so that that chance is given to more deserving applicants. Besides demanding cancellation of Kasibayo’s candidature, Kasajja copied his petition to a number of officials including Justice Minister Norbert Mao, Chief Justice Alfonse Dollo, Attorney General Kiwanuka Kiryowa, the principal judge and JSC Secretary Rose Nassali.
The JSC has decided to write to the SHACU head seeking for confirmation if the criminal file against Kasibayo indeed exists. That confirmation could result into Kasibayo’s name being denominated from the list of shortlisted candidates for the position of high court judge.
Kasajja says the moment Kasibayo gets appointed a high court judge he will be finished because it will now become much easier for him to influence all the complaints and criminal cases investigators like SHACU might wish to commence or sustain against him.
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