Kerry Howard Mwesigwa.
Kampala, Uganda – President Yoweri Museveni has granted a presidential pardon to 200 convicts, including former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Service, Jimmy Lwamafa. The move was based on advice from the Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy and was rooted in both public health and humanitarian considerations.
Lwamafa, alongside Christopher Obey (deceased) and Stephen Kiwanuka Kunsa, had been convicted in 2016 for various offenses, including causing financial loss, abuse of office, false accounting, conspiracy to defraud, and the diversion of public funds totaling sh88 billion. The court’s sentence also included an order for them to reimburse sh50 billion of the embezzled funds.
Later, on December 21, 2018, Lwamafa faced an additional nine-year jail term for his involvement with the late City lawyer Bob Kasango in embezzling 16.4 billion shillings, intended for pensioner compensation.
The basis for the presidential pardon lies in Article 121 (1) (a) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, 1995, which grants the President the authority to exercise clemency. Frank Baine, the spokesperson for the Uganda Prisons Service, explained that the convicts were pardoned primarily on public health and humanitarian grounds. The decision to grant clemency was documented in a statement dated August 20, 2023, signed by President Museveni.
Upon his release, Lwamafa, an elderly individual, had completed nearly eight years of imprisonment. The presidential pardon brings this chapter to a close, invoking both legal and humanitarian considerations in the decision-making process.
