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There was laughter inside the Kajjansi magistrates court on Thursday when a secondary school teacher couldn’t tell court the names of the village where he stays and has been staying for years along Entebbe road.
Vicent Mwigale Masajjage, a teacher at Bridge School Zana, pleaded with grade I magistrate Pascal Olupot to treat him leniently “because your worship I’m a mere secondary school teacher who isn’t good at those things but that’s where I stay and even my LC1 chairman knows me.”
He was in court to stand surety for environmental protection policeman PC Katungi Alex whose Monday arrest and Thursday arraignment was ordered by the president after torture, extortion and land grabbing victims complained to state house.
Katungi was remanded up to 19th April along with his co-accused AIP Keneth Hadali. They were remanded largely because all the sureties they brought to court were in bad shape and unreliable with Masajjage being just an example.
In his case, Masajjage gave the magistrate what he said was his introduction letter from the LC1 chairman for Kikumbi cell or village near Bunnamwaya.
Even when the name of the cell, ward, division and munipality had all been stated in the LC1 letter, which had already been passed on to the magistrate without retaining a copy, Masajjage couldn’t tell court anything regarding his place of abode.
He kept saying it’s near Nyanama and not very from Bunnamwaya-Zana. He went on to say that his division was Makindye division and his district is Kampala. This shocked the magistrate because in actual truth, Kikumbi zone is in Makindye Ssabagabo municipality which is in Wakiso district and not the Makindye division in Kampala district which Masajjage claimed to be his place of abode.
The defense lawyer Allan Rubaihayo pleaded with the magistrate to overlook all that and accept Masajjage as an effective surety since the LC1 letter he put on table was authentic and not forgery.
He also said Katungi, being a policeman, could be released even without a single surely since assault with which he was charged was a bailable offence. The magistrate disagreed and remanded Katungi up to 9th April.
The magistrate and other people in court felt sorry for parents who take their kids at the so-called Bridges secondary school in Zana which has a teacher who can fail to know the correct names of his place of abode.
Present in court where many journalists including those who were streaming live on social media. The Katungi case was of great interest to a lot of Kajjansi and Entebbe residents who have been victims of his brutality and extortion which he would go around commiting under the guise of protecting wetlands in the area against illegal developments and illegal sand mining.
When he failed to explain properly his place of abode and realised the magistrate was becoming doubtful, Masajjage started saying he was a pastor and instead of revealing the name of his church, he said he was just the family pastor who prays for Katungi and his wife from their home in Buziga.
He walked to the back corner of the courtroom and started praying as court proceedings went on. He could be heard calling on God to guide the magistrate to be lenient and grant bail as opposed to sending Katungi to Luzira.
His God didn’t intervene and Katungi ended up being remanded to Luzira, which excited victims of his brutality who were many at the court premises.
The other surety Katungi had was a carpenter from whom his co-accused AIP Keneth Hadali bought a set of chairs months ago. He is based at Namulanda and the magistrate said such a loose relationship couldn’t be relied upon to release Katungi on bail.
It was clear that, fearing to face the wrath of state house because the president personally ordered for Katungi’s arrest, all big people at police headquarters in Naguru and elsewhere in government, had shunned Katungi at his hour of need, leaving Mwesigwa Rukutana to die in the Katungi movie alone.
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