State Fail To Present Witness, Ssegirnya & Hiss Mother Cry As Court Adjourned

The state accuses Ssegirinya alias Mr Update of posting statements on his Facebook page “Ssegirinya Muhammad Fans Page” calculated to incite the public to participate in violence against a section or group of Ugandans.

He is quoted to have posted on his Facebook page between August and September 2020 that “I am warning those who are trying to assassinate Hon. Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu that what will happen will be forty times worse than the 1994 Rwandan genocide“. The genocide left at least more than 1 million people slaughtered in the ethnic cleansing in Rwanda within 100 days.

Ssegirinya appeared in Court clad in a gray suit with a white shirt, his wife and mother were present in Court alongside other National Unity Platform (NUP) Members of Parliament.

Also notably absent were usual lawyers to Hon. Ssegirinya , including Shamim Malende and Medard Ssegona,who failed to show up under unclear circumstances. However, the accused was represented by Musa Matovu and Kassim Ddamulira as his lawyers.

Prosecution represented by Ivan Kyazze told the presiding Magistrate that their witness failed to turn up in court because he was stuck at a training.

The worried MP asked his legal counsel to inform the court that his health has continued to deteriorate as a result of failure to access proper treatment even at Luzira where he is currently on remand. Ssegirinya says he has been denied access to any medication and is worried about his life, However, the Magistrate declined to respond to his allegations.

Previously, the prosecutor, Kyazze, presented Nayiga as the first state witness. Nayiga told the Court that the Managing Director of UBC Radio tasked her to translate and transcribe videos of Ssegirinya inciting violence delivered by the Criminal Investigations Directorate of the Uganda Police Force. 

According to Nayiga, upon receiving the Compact Disk containing the videos whose origin she doesn’t know, she listened and transcribed what Ssegirinya was speaking.

She tendered before the court a letter from CID to the Managing Director of UBC Radio, in which police requested translation services. However, Ssegirinya’s lawyers then, Asuman Basalirwa and Shamim Malende objected to the letter, saying that in law, one cannot produce evidence from a document that was never addressed to them as an individual or one that they didn’t author. 

Ssegirinya has other unresolved charges of inciting violence pending before Buganda Road Magistrate’s Court in connection to his demonstration near Mini Price in March 2021 demanding the release of all political prisoners arrested in connection to the general elections.

He is currently on remand on murder, attempted murder and aiding and abetting terrorism charges stemming from his alleged involvement in the Greater Masaka region machete killings, which claimed more than 20 lives between July and September 2021