Police on Thursday retrieved from Mityana Municipality MP Francis Zaake’s home a car belonging to the Parliamentary Commission following his removal as Commissioner.
“The action was prompted by Hon Zaake’s refusal to return Government property that by policy is supposed to be driven by an official driver. The Clerk to Parliament had severally advised Hon Zaake to follow the guidelines governing management of government fleet and return the car but he declined. The police have delivered the car and it is safe at parliament parking,” Parliament’s director, communication and public affairs Chris Obore said on Friday.
A May 3 letter signed off by the Clerk to Parliament, Mr Adolf Mwesige Kasaija, instructed the police to withdraw the vehicle from Mr Zaake.
“It has come to my notice that Hon Francis Zaake has never handed over the vehicle to the Director, Admiration and Transport Logistics as per my communication, which is in contravention with the law. The purpose of this communication, therefore, is to instruct you to immediately recover the above-mentioned Parliamentary Commission vehicle from him,” the letter read in part.
In March, 155 legislators voted to remove Mr Zaake from the Parliamentary Commission over accusations of disparaging then Deputy Speaker, Ms Anita Among. Ms Among has since replaced the late Jacob Oulanyah as the House Speaker.
After two weeks of investigation, the Committee on Rules, Privileges, and Discipline had recommended that Mr Zaake apologises to the House. It held that the conduct of the National Unity Platform (NUP) party legislator was not proper and that it amounted to misbehaviour and misconduct. This recommendation was, however, reviewed for a censure motion that was overwhelmingly adopted by the House. Mr Zaake later petitioned the Constitutional Court, seeking to—among others—overturn his removal from the position.
A cybercrime investigator attached to the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI), Kibuli, Mr Bill Ndyamuhaki, during cross-examination said he could not confirm whether a Facebook fan page in Ssegirinya’s name actually belongs to him.
While testifying at Buganda Road Chief Magistrate’s Court, Mr Ndyamuhaki said he received instructions to establish the source of the utterance and extract to facilitate investigation into a case of alleged utterance and incitement to violence made and posted by Muhammad Ssegirinya on his Facebook fan page that was in Luganda .
Court further heard that he conducted an analysis on social media and it was established that the said video was posted on a Facebook account of Tom Voltaire Okwalinga on August 31, 2020 with a title “NUP official says they will kill 40 times of those killed in Rwandan Genocide if anything happens to Kyagulanyi” in a video shared by 147 facebook followers. The video runs for 1 minute and 25 seconds.
“A Facebook page Ssegirinya Muhammad Fans Page was accessed on URL [Uniform Resource Locator or web address] and it was established that on August 30,2022 there was a live broadcast thereafter a post titled ‘ Sipapa update and Male Mabirizi Kaweddemu’ was posted on the Facebook page with a video,” Mr Ndyamuhaki said in his testimony.
“It was observed that the said video posted on Facebook account of Tom Voltaire Okwalinga was an extract from a longer video that was first posted on the Facebook page of Ssegirinya Muhammad Fans running for one hour, four minutes and 25 seconds. It was shared by 1,021 Facebook followers,” he added.
