Geoffrey Kazinda found guilty.

Kazinda being escorted by prisons officers after he was found guilty by the Anti-corruption court.

Interdicted Former Principal Accountant of the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) Geoffrey Kazinda was on Wednesday afternoon found guilty of all the 29 counts of fraud as had been preferred against him for prosecution by the state.
 
Anti-corruption court judge Justice David Wangutusi ruled that Kazinda was guilty of forging more than 20 signatures of his then boss and permanent secretary at the OPM, Mr Pius Bigirimana, with intent to defraud the institution. Among the forged documents were security papers and withdraw forms which were recovered by the police from Kazinda’s home in Bukoto, a Kampala suburb.

Whereas no money was lost in this case, prosecution said Kazinda had intentions of defrauding the OPM if the situation had not been dealt with early enough.

Justice Wangutusi said prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt that Kazinda committed all the 29 offenses. “This court finds that prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and does not agree with the assessors who advised this court to acquit him.”

On forging Mr Bigirimana’s signatures, the judge said expert evidence proved the forgery and noted that Kazinda was behind the move. 
“In my opinion, PW9 (Mr Bigirimana) was not the author of the signature on the specimen, so who forged them?” asked Judge Wangutusi. “The circumstances under which these documents were found being hidden in a student’s room in his mother’s house and yet they were very sensitive documents, it’s traceable to him (Kazinda).

The sentence for Kazinda will be read to him on 26th June. He is likely to be sentenced to 20 years in jail if all counts preferred against him are upheld by that time.