The Anti-Corruption Court in Kampala sentenced flamboyant businessman Apollo Senketto to 10 years in prison for his role in the theft of 24.7 billion shillings for upgrading the Mukono-Nyenga-Kisoga-Katosi road. Senketto’s co-accused were sentenced to 5 years in prison.They were Joe Semugoma, the former Director of Finance and Administration in the Uganda National Roads Authority UNRA and Wilberforce Senjako, a former UNRA Accounts
Assistant. Justice Lawrence Gidudu said Apollo Senketto was the mastermind of the multi-billion shilling fraud by opening an account without the Powers of Attorney from ETAWU MISISIPI which he claimed was the firm contracted to execute the road project.
Justice Gidudu who heads the Anti-Corruption Court said the evidence presented outweighed the mitigating factors, so the trio should serve a custodial sentence to send a clear message to other corrupt people.
Defense lawyers had argued mitigation, asking for a lenient sentence or a fine and not custodial because the convicts were family breadwinners. However, Justice Gidudu said the court needed to send a strong message that stealing taxpayers’ money was reprehensible and those engaged in such viral acts should pay dearly.
Senketto was found to have sent about 17 billion shillings to his co-conspirators in the US and spent the remaining with 7.7 billion to service his lavish lifestyle in Uganda.
One of the reasons the lawyers of Senketto gave to court in order for him to get a linear sentence was that the fact he is still pursuing a degree in theology, that would be enough for him to reform as a person but Justice Gidudu ruled that; just like St. Paul after turning into Christianity while in jail he wrote letters to Corinthians, Galatians, Corinthians among others and thus 10 years for Senketto in jail would still be enough to continue his Christian life.
The Judge also explained the former UNRA officials Joe Semugoma and Wilberforce Senjako should stay in jail because many people in UNRA lost their jobs because of their theft.
The Judge also faulted the dual for choosing to look away instead of reporting the invalid security Senketto presented as guarantees to enable the release of 24.7 billion shillings.
The prosecution had appealed to the court to compel the convicts to refund the money. However, Justice Gidudu said no engineering audit was done to quantify the road works under loss. He said that well as the prosecution said 24.7 billion shillings was lost, roads works worthy 7 billion shillings had been executed. Senketto’s lawyer Peter Mulira questioned the judgment. “An honorable person would know that Senketto is being victimized because this court has to convict somebody to show the donors that the fight for corruption is justified.
This is not justice and I will never come back to this court.” Said, Peter Mulira – Senketto’s Lawyer. “This man is by no means a fraudster, he is not a thief, he is not of those things the honorable judge has called it.
Think about this, seven people were accused; three people have been convicted. Out of those seven people, is it really possible for what they say is a scam to happen on their own?” Said, NakkuSenketto – Wife to Senketto. The defense lawyers said they would appeal the judgment. They now have not more than two weeks to file their appeal. Former Works Minister Abraham Byandala and three others were acquitted in the same case yesterday.
