Buganda Road Court grants Besigye, Mukaaku Shs.25m cash bail

By Rachael Najjuma

1^st July 2022

The Buganda Road Chief Magistrates Court has granted bail to the four-time Presidential Candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye and activist Samuel Walter Lubega Mukaaku. 

The two were granted bail on Friday by Buganda Road Court Chief Magistrate Dr. Douglas Singiza. They were asked to pay cash of 2.5 million shillings each and each of their two sureties have been asked to execute a non-cash bond of 500,000 shillings.

Besigye presented Kitgum Municipality Member of Parliament Denis Onekalit and Kampala Capital City Deputy Lord Mayor Doreen Nyanjura as his sureties while Mukaaku presented the Forum for Democratic Change Party Deputy Secretary-General Harlod Kaija and former Rukungiri Municipality Member of Parliament Roland Mugume.

Their lawyer Samuel Muyizzi Mulindwa asked the Court to grant his clients bail on grounds that they are still presumed innocent until proven to be guilty.

He also told Court that his clients have been on remand for more than two weeks, a long period that deserved to be converted into non-cash bail on their release since they have been earning nothing.

State Attorney Ivan Kyazze didn’t object to bail but asked for stringent terms to be imposed on the two and to direct them to pay cash bail such that they don’t abscond from the trial.

The case was adjourned to July 29 2022 for mention before the Magistrate Asuman Muhumuza.

On June 15, Besigye and Lubega Mukaaku were arraigned before the Buganda Road Magistrates Court and charged with inciting violence and remanded to Luzira Prison. The charges stemmed from a protest held along Nakivubo Lane in Shauriyako Parish in Kampala City against the skyrocketing prices of commodities in the country.

They were however two days later returned to Court presided over by Grade One Magistrate Asuman Muhumuza and applied for bail which was denied.

On Thursday, the two appeared before the High Court Judge Tadeo Asiimwe who also dismissed their application with advice that they should go back to Buganda Road Court since the accused had not followed the hierarchy of the administration of Courts by skipping the Chief Magistrates Court and going to the High Court.