Mukono High Court has halted Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Matayo Kyaligonza’s arrest warrant Kyaligonza had been accused of allegedly assaulting a traffic Police officer.
In an order dated July 24, 2019, resident Justice Margaret Mutonyi stopped the implementation of the warrant issued by Mukono Chief Magistrate Juliet Hatanga.
Uganda’s ambassador to Burundi and his guards Peter Bushindiki and John Robert Okurut purportedly assaulted Esther Namaganda on February 4. Namaganda says she was slapped when she stopped Kyaligonza’s convoy from making a U-turn at Seeta junction, near Tuskys supermarket.
The National Resistance Movement (NRM) bush war veteran and his guards insist that they are already being subjected to similar disciplinary proceedings at the Army Court.
In May, Hatanga issued the warrant of arrest when the trio skipped court, but the new order implies that the trial is temporarily put on hold until the High Court makes a pronouncement on an application for revision filed by Kyaligonza and his guards.
“The warrant of arrest issued under criminal case no.312 of 2019 and all proceedings thereunder be stayed, pending the determination of the main application for revision,” the judge ordered.
The instruction document shows that the state prosecutor, Jonathan Muwaganya, did not oppose the halt. It also shows that consent was reached with Kyaligonza’s lawyers David Balondemu, Caleb Alaka, and Evans Ochieng.
Kyaligonza and his guards maintain that the arrest warrant is procedurally flawed. They wondered why they were being pushed over the same set of facts like those at the Military Police Unit disciplinary committee.
Court documents show that the Military Police wrote to the Mukono Chief Magistrate’s Court, informing it that such a trial would be unfair, under the circumstances.
