Buganda Road Grade one Magistrate Fidelis Otwao on Wednesday witnessed drama in court as City Lawyer Kintu Felix accused of defrauding Interlink Education Institution over 195 million shillings contradicted his lawyers in a court session.
City lawyer Felix Kintu Nteza in court on Wednesday.
Although its known by law that any acused in a criminal case has to address court through defence lawyers, on Kintu’s case it was different after he decided to addressing his concerns from the dock direct to the Magistrate as the counsels looked at him.
“Your worship in the interest of justice and fair hearing, i seek for another date to prepare for hearing of this matter and enable my full team of lawyers to appear in court. We came ready for only the application which has been made not for hearing.” submitted the accused from the dock
Lawyer Kintu Nteza told court that he still believes in the representation of his lawyers but he couldn’t hold back as he watched things not moving on well.
This suprised the Magistrate who asked the defence lawyers whether they believe in what their clients was telling court , which they answered in affirmative.
The Magistrate therefore pushed the further hearing of the matter to 12th next month with hope that the defence would have prepared themselves well.
Earlier on court overuled the defence in application seeking to stay the proceedings untill when the matter challenging the trial is fully heard and disposed off before the high court.
“Its the 15th time when this matter is coming up before court in a period of almost a year but the hearing has never commenced yet the witness incurs alot of costs travelling to Uganda wherever the case comes up.”
Basing on the above grounds the Magistrate ruled that the trial should proceed and court will be ready to respect the decision of high court as far as the matter is concerned.
First Prosecution witness Nakachwa Idah testfying in court on Wednesday.
Hearing
The first prosecution witness to testify in this matter was Nakachwa Idah 42 years , Teacher by professional and one of the Interlink Education Services both in Uganda and Botswana.
in her testimony , she told court that around 2013 / 2014 they paid Lawyer Kintu a total of 120 million Uganda shillings on behalf of the owner of the land located in Jimbo , Busiro Wakiso district and they were to pay the remaining 75 million shillings upon being issued with the land title.
“Having been told that there were other people intending to buy our land which we had found to be suitable to set up a Cambridge Secondary School, we transfered the money on our dollar account in Eco bank through our lawyers of Kafeero and Company limited to pay lawyer Nteza the balance inorder to hand over our land title.”
Nakachwa said that after the final payment they tried to follow up and get their land title but their efforts didn’t yield any result as the lawyer kept on tossing them around without telling the truth.
These reported the matter to Kibuli CID as advised by their colleagues, recorded statements which resulted into the case before court.
“As Directors of Interlink , we pray that this Honorable court helps us to secure the land we bought in 2013/2014 or order the lawyer to give us the land equivalent to the same amount we paid for the same land . We also want the accused to pay us all the costs we have incurred in this matter.” he added.
Prosecution Contends that Kintu Felix Kintu Nteza , between the 27th August 2013 to 5th August 2014 at E- Towers Kampala with intent to defraud , he obtained money to wit Ugandan shillings 195,000,000/=( One hundred ninety five million shillings) from Interlink Education Services Limited by falsely pretending that the Administrators of the late George Kamya and beneficiaries of the said to wit land comprised in Busiro Block 220 Plot 64 Land at Gimbo Wakiso District were selling to Interlink Education Services Limited.
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