Kampala Central Deputy Mayor remanded over fraud

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Nakawa Chief Magistrates Court has remanded Hanipher Mpungu, the Kampala Central Deputy Mayor to Luzira Prison on charges of obtaining money under false pretenses. Mpungu appeared before the Nakawa Chief Magistrate Ritah Neumbe Kidasa on Wednesday.

It is alleged that between May and June 2022 in Ntinda, Kampala district, she obtained Shillings 450 million from Grave Tony Mulinde Lugayuzi to purportedly sell him land in vain. Despite maintaining her innocence, Mpungu’s bail application could not proceed as the Resident State Attorney, Doreen Elima, is on leave.

Consequently, she was returned to prison, with her next court appearance scheduled for September 20th, 2023. The Kampala Central Urban Council Division Mayor Salim Uhuru appointed Mpungu as his Deputy in July 2021. If found guilty, the offense she is charged with carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.

The charge states, “Any person who, by any false pretense and with intent to defraud, obtains anything capable of being stolen from another person or induces another person to deliver anything capable of being stolen, commits a felony and is liable to imprisonment for five years.”

Records indicate that Mpungu was previously released on police bond on August 12th, 2022, but failed to comply. She was subsequently summoned to court on August 23rd, 2023. Allegedly, her lawyer falsely claimed she was admitted to the Wellington Diabetes and Heart Centre Nakasero.

However, Detective AIP Peter Abwona’s investigation found no evidence of her presence at that hospital. “On the 31st day of August 2023, the accused, who had earlier claimed to be admitted at Wellington Diabetes and Heart Centre Nakasero, was intercepted and arrested while attending a party with her children in Nangabo Kasangati,” reads an affidavit by Abwona. The disputed land is said to belong to the Uganda Nurses and Midwives Council.

This is not the first time the Uganda Nurses and Midwives Council has been implicated in property-related fraud. In 2020, three individuals were remanded to Kitalya prison for conspiring to steal over Shillings 444 million from the Uganda Nurses and Midwives Council in a software scam.

The accused reportedly received the money through an ex parte court order issued by the interdicted Masaka High Court Registrar, Cissy Mudhasi, in favor of Ram Engineering Uganda Limited, with an arbitrator only identified as I. Tugumisirize.

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