By Andrew Irumba
Kampala: The permanent Secretary to the Judiciary Kagole Kivumbi sweated plasma this afternoon after being ordered by parliament to produce medical records proving that he sick or else get arrested for contempt.
Kivumbi was supposed to appear before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) at parliament on Tuesday, to answer the Auditor General’s queries into how the Judiciary misappropriated over Shs34 billion. However, Kagole and his team snubbed appearing before it. He instead sent his lawyer who appeared before PAC but was sent away by the Chairman Nandala Mafabi, who ordered Kagole and his team to appear at Parliament on Wednesday without fail. So when Kagole appeared on Wednesday, the MPs directed officers from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) attached to the committee to escort him to his home to pick the documents in regard to his eye defect, before returning to Parliament. The committee meeting was suspended for an hour, to allow Kagole time, to present the required document. Kagole, during a meeting with the PAC, found difficulty justifying his absence from a meeting on Tuesday. He told the committee that he missed the planned meeting because of a health emergency.
“I most sincerely regret my absence in this committee. I had a surgery on my eye and the post-surgery was on Monday. Yesterday I had an emergency but I remain at your disposal to answer audit queries,” Kagole told PAC.
However, committee members were not convinced by the explanation. Kwania County MP Tony Ayo blamed Kagole for failing to make a formal communication to the committee, before skipping the meeting. Ayo demanded that Kagole presents medical forms to prove his statement.
“We need confirmation that you had a medical emergency. And I warn you not to present falsified documents because we can go ahead and check hospital records,” Butemba County MP Pentagon Kamusiime said while pushing for proof.
In fact, Committee Chairman Nathan Nandala Mafabi asked Kagole to place a phone call to his home for the documents to be delivered. However, Kagole said that no one could access his room apart from him and the wife who was not at home.
Kagole’s woes started after a whistleblower petition on suspected collusion to embezzle 34 billion Shillings from the Judiciary. The expenses were also queried by the Auditor General as money mischarged. Scrutiny of a detailed accountability document indicates that some of the funds had been wired to individual accounts of different Judiciary officers and Justices for reasons including office operational funds, payment of tuition, and medical fees, among others. But according to Kagole, the money was spent on Court operational funds, mediation costs, Court sessions, imprest, locus visits, HIV medical allowances and expenditure for Monitoring and Evaluation since these items have no direct budget lines.
