Interdicted Masaka Registrar Petitions Court to Block Investigations

The interdicted Masaka High Court Deputy Registrar Cissy Kawuma Mudhasi has filed an application seeking a temporary injunction restraining the Uganda Police Force and State House Anti-Corruption Unit from investigating her on charges related to abuse of judicial authority.

Mudhasi was interdicted on  June 24th, 2020 by the then Acting Chief Registrar Tom Chemutai who accused her of three offences including producing poor standard work,  conducting herself in a manner prejudicial to the image and dignity and reputation of service contrary to the Judicial Service regulations of 2005.

According to the interdiction letter which was accompanied by a charge sheet submitted to the Judicial Service Commission for trial, Mudhasi's offences included having issued exparte orders in the case involving Saudha Namuleme and Masaka Municipal Local Government Council.

It is alleged that Mudhasi made orders reflecting conditions that had not been prayed for by Namuleme in the case that included ordering that Namuleme is reinstated as a signatory to Masaka Local Government Bank accounts, an issue considered to be as having produced poor standard work.

Namuleme had previously been accused of conniving with the cashier for the Local Government to open a secret bank account in Stanbic Bank as they reportedly used it to hide part of the money collected as property tax and other local government revenues.

Mudhasi was also accused of issuing garnishee orders in cases involving Ram Engineering Limited, Makerere University and Stanbic Bank Limited. It is alleged that there was a fraud of more than three billion shillings of money belonging to Uganda Nurses and Midwives Council by Ram Engineering Company following the orders issued by Mudhasi without ascertaining whether the company owed anything from the nurses.

The company had reportedly alleged that it owed the money in question for having been contracted for a project of designing a software app to be used by all the members of the nurses Council for database, yet such project never even existed.

The other cases where fraud was also detected involved Nets Hope Limited, Amoti Boniface Kamanyire and Absa Bank Uganda Limited where similar orders were also issued.

Mudhasi was also in the same month subjected to another criminal investigation in respect of her judicial work by the State House Anti-Corruption Unit and the Judicial Service Commission.

Mudhasi in her documents filed through her lawyers of Muwema and Company Advocates dated June 18th 2021 before the Civil Division in Kampala, contends that she has since learnt that several culprits who had orchestrated the said fraudulent cases which were presented before her court have since been arrested and charged at Buganda Road Magistrates Court.

"Despite the arrest, charging and prosecution of the culprits, both the Uganda Police and the impugned State House Anti-Corruption Unit have continued to harass the applicant with unending and humiliating interrogations which have name tagged her as a conspirator and subject, whereas not", reads the application in part.

It adds that “the applicant has written to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to intervene and stop the above mentioned continuous harassment by the Uganda Police and State House Anti-Corruption Unit but in vain.

According to Mudhasi, if Police and the Unit are allowed to continue investigations, such continuity will occasion substantial and irreparable damage to her who shall greatly prejudice her right to a fair hearing.

Mudhasi now wants a temporary injunction restraining the investigating agencies from conducting any further criminal investigations into her judicial work until the determination of the main application challenging the legality of subjecting her to three parallel criminal investigations. The Attorney General is listed as a respondent to Mudhasi's case.

Mudhasi who was first appointed Grade One Magistrate on February 2nd 1991  has since then risen through judicial ranks up to High Court Deputy Registrar, her application is allocated to the head of High Court Civil Division Justice Musa Ssekaana.