Judge pins lawyer Kasango on pension case

High Court judge John Eudes Keitrima has pinned city lawyer Bob Kasango in a case of forging a court order compelling government to pay Shs7.8billion as costs to two lawyers who represented 6339 pension claimants in a 1998 case.
Mr Keitirima, the resident judge at Masaka High Court, was testifying in the Anti-Corruption Court in Kampala today.
Mr Kasango and three former officials of Public Service Ministry Jim Lwamafa, Christopher Obey, Stephen Kiwanuka Kunsa and a court clerk Milton Mutegeka are alleged to have stolen more than Shs15 billion for over 6000 pension claimants.

Justice Keitirima presented an audio recording in which he secretly recorded Mr Kasango pleading with him not to take the matter to police after the forgery and fraud had been detected. He said Kasango forged the documents purporting that they had been signed by him [the judge] as costs of the 1998 case where the pensioners sued government. He said the forged documents were smuggled into the case file by a court clerk.
Justice Keitirima told the trial judge Margaret Tibulya that he learnt of the fraud on January 22, 2013 when he received a request from police detectives to avail them the court ruling in the pension case and list of the beneficiaries.
He said he called lawyer John Matovu who had handled the case for the pensioners to remind him when he signed such orders compelling government to pay the purported costs to Kasango. He said instead Mr Matovu counter-accused him of conniving with Kasango to deprive him of his money.
Keitirima was then deputy registrar of High Court Civil Division.

He said when Kasango learnt that the fraud had been detected, he approached him and pleaded that the case should not be reported to police.
Keitirima presented the audio recording which was played in court this afternoon, showing Kasango pleading with the him over the matter. The audio shows that the contested documents had not been signed by Keitirima as purported, but were from an agent of Christopher Obey.
Keitrima said there was no taxation of costs in this case nor an order to government to pay Shs7.8bn and therefore whoever purported to recover those costs the basis of the two fraudulent documents was a fraudster.