By KT Reporter
The hearing of the case in which Kampala District Land Board Chairperson Lawyer David Balondemu is accused of conspiring with Mulago Hospital Doctor Hassan Ssegujja to forge medical documents to secure bail has failed to kick off.
The hearing was expected to commence on Friday before the Buganda Road Chief Magistrate, Ronald Kayizzi.
One of the lawyers on the team defending the accused persons, Evans Ochieng told the Court that two of his colleague,s Lawyer Henry Kunya and Hassan Kamba who was the lead Counsel were not present.
Ochieng said Kunya was engaged in the International Crimes Division of the High Court and that Kamba withdrew from the case to participate in elections in a Constituency in Busia District.
He asked for an adjournment. But State Attorney Viola Tusingwire noted they had a witness in Court and they were ready to proceed considering that the matter was fixed for trial.
Tusingwire said they are disturbed by the excuses of lawyers because the election year hasn’t yet started. She sought guidance from Court on how to proceed.
Chief Magistrate Ronald Kayizzi adjourned the case to July 9th 2025, with orders that on that day, the Case shall proceed with or without the lawyers for the accused persons. Both Balondemu and Dr Ssegujja are out on bail.
Prosecutors allege that Balondemu and Mulago Hospital, Dr Hassan Ssegujja and others, still at large in 2023 at Kampala Hospital, knowingly and fraudulently made a false document, a prescription medical form dated November 7th 2023.
It is also alleged that Dr. Ssegujja and lawyer Balondemu knowingly and fraudulently made a false document, a CT scan medical form dated June 12th 2023 at Kampala Hospital.
Trouble for Balondemu started in 2023 when he was arraigned at Buganda Road Court on charges of conspiring with two others to obtain money by false pretense.
The State alleged that Balondemu , two others and others still at large between the months of November 2022 and April 2023, at Bloom Advocates with intent to defraud, obtained US Dollars 553,000 from KG unlimited LLC by falsely pretending that they were going to award it a contract of supplying agricultural drone sprayers and fertilizers from Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries whereas not.
His arraignment at Buganda Road came few weeks after his release by the City Hall Magistrates Court on charges related to defrauding a Korean Investor in a bogus Gold deal of 2.2 billion shillings.
Although these charges have all since been dismissed for lack of evidence.
However, as he was applying for bail for the file of obtaining money by pretence at Buganda Road Court, Balondemu furnished Grade One Magistrate Winnie Nankya ‘s court documents indicating that he was scheduled for surgery at Kampala Hospital as one of the grounds to seek temporary Freedom from prison.
As a result, the prosecution which was being represented by Ivan Kyazze on that day went out to verify the authenticity of the documents .
Kyazze tendered evidence showing that Balondemu had never been a patient at Kampala Hospital and neither was he scheduled for operation according to the Kampala Hospital Chief Executive Officer Dr Peter Kibuuka .
“According to our records, Mr Balondemu has never been a patient at Kampala Hospital. There is no scheduled TURP surgery on November 22nd, 2022, at 8 am for Mr Balondemu as indicated in the letter dated November 7th, 2023. Therefore, the purported documents dated June 2nd, 2023 and November 7th, 2023, were not authored by Kampala Hospital”, wrote Kibuuka in his letter responding to a request from the Director CID Kibuuli.
Consequently, the prosecutors levied charges of forgery against Balondemu and Dr Ssegujja.The Magistrate Nankya had previously warned Balondemu and his lawyers that he would be charged with forgery, should it be discovered that the medical letters were not genuine-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
