Kerry Howard Mwesigwa.
KAMPALA, November 07, 2023 | David Balondemu, the chairperson of the Kampala District Land Board, has been granted bail by the City Hall Court after spending three weeks in prison over a gold scam that allegedly defrauded a Korean investor of US$600,000 (about Shs2.5 billion). Balondemu, who is also a lawyer, was released on Monday by Grade One Magistrate Rehema Nassozi, along with his co-accused Geoffrey Mkwe, another lawyer.
The two lawyers are facing charges of obtaining money by false pretence and conspiracy to defraud, together with businessmen James Jeff Mugisha and Godfrey Mabirizi, who are still in custody pending verification of their bail documents. The four suspects are accused of conniving with others still at large to dupe Hyun Uk Kim, a Korean investor, into buying 53 kilograms of fake gold between March and November 2021 at the offices of Balondemu and Company Advocates along Parliamentary Avenue in Kampala.
According to the prosecution, led by State Attorney Mercy Yamangusho Khaidarah, the suspects presented forged documents and certificates to the investor, claiming that they had genuine gold for sale. They allegedly received the money from the investor through bank transfers and mobile money transactions, but failed to deliver the gold as agreed.
Balondemu and Mkwe applied for bail through their lawyers, Caleb Alaka, Evans Ochieng, and Mukasa Mbidde, citing their constitutional right to presumption of innocence, their advanced age, their ill health, and their substantial sureties. They presented several individuals as their sureties, including Dr. Richard Lukandwa, a consultant physician, Richard Collins Kiberu, a managing director of two companies, Sylvia Bahizi, an employee of Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) and Balondemu’s wife, and Betty Nakayima, a businesswoman dealing in chemicals.
The prosecution opposed the bail applications, arguing that the investigations were still incomplete and that the release of the suspects would interfere with the evidence and the witnesses. The prosecution also claimed that the suspects were a flight risk and that they had no fixed places of abode.
However, the magistrate found the sureties to be substantial and credible and allowed the bail applications for the lawyers. She ordered Balondemu and Mkwe to pay Shs20 million each in cash and their sureties to execute a non-cash bond of Shs200 million each. She also ordered them to deposit their passports with the court and not to leave the country without court permission. She adjourned the case to November 15, 2023, for mention and for the ruling on the bail application of the other two co-accused.
The bail release of Balondemu and Mkwe was welcomed by their supporters, who had thronged the court premises wearing white t-shirts bearing their names and pictures with the slogan “We need evidence and justice for Balondemu David”. Balondemu, who is a prominent lawyer and land board chairperson, was arrested by detectives from the State House Anti-Corruption Unit and detained at the Special Investigations Division in Kireka for three days before being arraigned in court and remanded to Luzira Prison, where he spent 16 days.
