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Fidelis Munyoro
Chief Court Reporter
FORMER Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Petronella Kagonye, hope for freedom was on Tuesday quashed after the High Court upheld a 16-month jail term imposed on her for stealing a consignment of 20 laptops.
The ruling follows Kagonye’s appeal against conviction and sentence for stealing 20 laptops meant to benefit schools.
Only last month her bid for bail pending appeal was rejected by the same court on the ground that she was unlikely to succeed on appeal.
As predicted by the court, Kagonye appeal on Tuesday failed after Justice Benjamin Chikowere sitting with Justice Rogers Manyangadze found no merit and upheld the former minister’s conviction.
Delivering the judgment for the court Justice Chikowero said Kagonye who had the onus to convince the court the sentence was shockingly outrageous did not go beyond asserting that it was disturbingly absurd.
The court upheld the trial court finding that Kagonye abused her position of trust and the fact that at the time the offence was committed, she was the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare.
“Accordingly, one of her key result areas was to enhance social protection of vulnerable groups in the country,” said Justice Chikowero.
The judge said the sentence imposed on Kagonye did not at all induce a sense of shock, if anything, it seemed to err on the side of leniency, noting that she became a liability and an obstacle to social development.
“She diverted laptops acquired using public funds to her own selfish ends,” said Justice Chikowero.
“To that extent, the trial court discerned traits of corruption in the way that the appellant committed the offence and was mindful of that in assessing the sentence.”
The former minister was in June this year slapped with an effective 16-month jail term for stealing 20 laptops in a corruption case linked to criminal abuse of public office, and has launched an appeal to the High Court and applied for bail.
The trial court after convicting her set a sentence of 36 months, with 12 months suspended on condition of future good behaviour, and a further eight months were suspended on condition that she restitutes US$ 10 000 equivalent for the 20 laptops that she stole.
This left her to serve an effective 16 months in jail.
Kagonye was ordered to pay back the money on or before August 31 this year, but failed to meet the deadline. But she, however, successfully sought for an extension of time to repay the money.
Kagonye received 20 laptops from the State as a donation not for her personal benefit but for the purpose of distribution to deserving schools in her political constituency.
The intended schools were named by her in her request for the donation and listed in the handover form signed on her behalf.
But in her defence Kagonye sought to argue that although the laptops were released at her written request made on behalf of her constituency and indeed subject to the terms of the written trust agreement, she was not privy to the agreement because it was signed by her brother, Evans, who received the laptops on her behalf.
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