Infamous city lawyer, Bob Kasango, has died in jail after serving only two years out of 16 years’ jail term.
Uganda Prisons Service –UPS Spokesperson, Frank Baine, confirmed to Daily Press that Kasango had breathed his last in jail. Nevertheless, Baine did not did not divulge details regarding the cause of his death. It is not clear whether Kasango has been battling an illness in jail or whether his demise was an abrupt occurrence.
Kasango was convicted and sentenced by Anti-Corruption Court in December 2018 after he was found guilty of illicitly accessing pensioners’ money. Court was convinced that Kasango forged two judicial documents to steal 15.4 billion shillings that was for 6,340 pensioners.
He was charged with among other counts theft, forgery and conspiracy to commit a crime. Kasango was convicted alongside three ministry of public service officials who included Jimmy Lwamafa, Christopher Obey and Stephen Kiwanuka Kunsa.
Lwamafa was who was public service permanent secretary was given a nine years’ term, Obey who was public service principal accountant was landed four 14 years term while Kunsa was sentenced to nine years.
Investigations revealed that the 15.4 billion pension money was diverted to Kasango’s firm’s account as a legal fee that was supposed to be payment for retirees. Now deceased, Kasango was also accused of getting money on his law firm’s bank account yet had not represented the pensioners in case which was against the Attorney General.
In the case of pensioners versus Attorney General, the complainants were represented by advocate Matovu John. However, after the case had been disposed of, Matovu signed a memorandum with Kasango assigning him to pick the money from government coffers.
Lawyer Matovu assigned Kasango to receive the money fearing that the government was not going to pay since he had been perceived as Opposition advocate because he had represented former Forum for Democratic Change –FDC presidential candidate Dr Kizza Besigye.
The case in which Matovu had presented Dr Besigye was a presidential petition against Yoweri Museveni in 2006. Dr Besigye dragged Museveni to Supreme Court accusing him of vote rigging among other malpractices.