Kitutu challenges latest IGG witness summons

MInister Mary Goretti Kitutu with her brother in the dock earlier

The minister for Karamoja Affairs Mary Gorreti Kitutu Kimono has petitioned the Anti-Corruption court challenging witness summons issued against her by the Inspector General of Government (IGG). 

Recently, IGG, Beti Kamya summoned Kitutu to provide information regarding the management of supplementary funds that were released to the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) to support peace-building activities in the Karamoja sub-region in FY 2021/2022.

Kitutu did not turn up as directed by the IGG on December 6, 2023, and now her lawyer, Jude Byamukama insists that she has not has not deliberately snubbed the summons. 

“She did not appear because she’s ill. But also, we have legal objections to the legality of summoning her. We have articulated our reasons” he said.

In the letter, Byamukama informs Kamya that Kitutu is in fact challenging the legality of her witness summons. 

“It will be therefore a violation of the subjudice rule if the inquiry and captioned investigations proceed while the same is under legal challenge” reads part of the letter whose receipt was acknowledged with a stamp from the inspectorate on January 11.

Kitutu, through her lawyers led by Byamukama, filed an application challenging the decision to summon her. She contends that she was charged before the Anti-Corruption court for the offence of loss of public property amounting to 14,500 iron sheets under the Karamoja Community Empowerment Programme. 

The said iron sheets were procured with the supplementary funds that were released to OPM to support peace-building activities in Karamoja. She says that the criminal case is fixed for hearing on February 12, 13 and 15 before lady justice Jane Okuo Kajuga.   

She was supposed to appear before the Inspectorate of Government on January 11. According to Kitutu, the Inspectorate of Government prematurely issued a search warrant to enter her premises at Buziga, Bbunga, Kampala around Mwedde-Crescent Drive/Kyabagu Richard close and carry out inspection and collect any oral, electronic (including CCTV footage at her residence) and documentary evidence.

Kitutu contends that the said inquiry is a disguised attempt to re-open the already concluded investigations on the management of the said supplementary funds. She is of the view that the latest decision by the IGG could be an attempt to come up with alternative possible offences in the same matter by a different government agency. 

She argues that her lawyers of JByamukama and Company Advocates advised her that the Inspectorate of Government is barred from conducting investigations touching matters that are already before a court of law in the pending case.       

“That my lawyers have also advised me that it is unconstitutional to split and sequentially initiate charges of offences founded on the same facts within different cases against an accused person even before they have been convicted violate Articles 28 (1) and 28 (3) (c) of the constitution,” says Kitutu.      

Kitutu wants the court to permanently prohibit the Inspectorate of Government from indulging in what she describes as endless investigations which are similar in character, saying is a violation of her rights.

“That my lawyers have advised me, which advice I verily believe to be true, that this court has the power to prevent the Inspectorate of Government and any other agent of the government from continuously investigating me over similar circumstances that form a continuous act and the same transaction,” adds Kitutu.     

She has also asked the court to grant her temporary relief by issuing an interim and a temporary injunction halting the actions of summoning her.  The application is fixed for hearing on January 22. Last year, on November 28, Kitutu lost a bid in the same Anti-Corruption court to block her trial over the iron sheet scandal.

She indicated that she had been tortured by security agents and police detectives whilst in detention. She was in August 2023 charged jointly with her brother, Naboya Kitutu Michael, and a senior assistant secretary at OPM, Abaho Joshua with the offence of loss of public property and conspiracy to defraud.     

Two other ministers, Amos Lugolobi and Agnes Nandutu were arrested and remanded to Luzira prison over the iron sheet scandal. Kitutu and the co-accused are expected in court later this month. Kitutu has since sought pardon from President Yoweri Museveni in her December 20, 2023 letter in which she also gave a detailed accountability of the missing iron sheets and how it was spent in the Karamoja region among others.