High Court in Jinja Wednesday issued an order reinstating the Resident District Commissioner [RDC] Eric Sakwa in his office.
“An interim order is hereby issued restraining the respondents (Attorney General and Hajj Kirunda) and their agents from removing Sakwa from office or interfering with his work as RDC in any way until his application his disposed of,” reads an order by Deputy Registrar, Fred Waninda.
Sakwa on the same day appeared before Jinja Grade I Magistrate, Agnes Nabafu, but his case could not be heard due to the absence of his co-accused Bizimeya and Simba.
Sakwa, 38, was on April 24, arrested and charged with manslaughter over the death of Charles Isanga, a businessman.
Prosecution alleges that between March 22 and April 17, Sakwa, along with Bumali Bazimbyewa, a mechanic and Mohammed Simba, a businessman, unlawfully caused the death of Isanga, a resident of Lwanda Village in Jinja.
His lawyer Evans Ochieng maintains Sakwa is still the RDC of Jinja.
Museveni tells him to step aside
However, President Museveni ordered Sakwa to step aside for two months so as to allow proper investigations into the manslaughter charge against him.
In a May 11 letter to Esther Mbayo, the minister for the presidency, Museveni noted that he was aware Sakwa is a victim of a corrupt people in Jinja who are fighting him.
“Mr Sakwa is accused of being present when a mwanainchi was being beaten by LDUs and that the mwanainchi later died, etc,” Museveni wrote in response to Mbayo.
“My information shows that Sakwa was not at the scene and that the man fell down and later died from the injuries caused by the fall.”
“A Ugandan dying is very serious. It is in the interests of, first and foremost Sakwa, for facts to come out establishing the truth,” the President wrote.
He instructed investigators to establish if Sakwa was on the scene “when the LDUs were bearing a mwanainchi?”
“That would be bad enough even if the mwanainchi didn’t die,” he said. “Violence by security forces should only be used in self-defence, if a suspect is violent. Even then, it should be violence to subdue the suspect and arrest him, not anything else.
He ordered that Sakwa steps aside for two months and cooperate with the Director of Public Prosecutions and the court systems to “get the facts and conclude the case.”
Sakwa returned to office a week after his arrest after securing bail.
Later, Hajj Yenus Kirunda, secretary to the Office of the President, asked him to hand over to District Internal Security Officer.
Credit: Daily Monitor
