Timothy Amerit the head of Private Prosecutions Liaison and Coordination Unit in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) has put up a spirited fight while shielding Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) of the National Unity Platform (NUP) from being criminally prosecuted before the 2026 general elections.
Amerit strongly objected to the application filed by serial litigator Kassim Male Mabirizi before the Criminal Division of the High Court seeking the reinstatement of the criminal charges issued against Bobi Wine in 2021 which were dropped on the orders of the DPP Justice Jane Frances Abodo.
Mabirizi, through private prosecution instituted charges of obtaining registration by false pretense against Bobi Wine which resulted into issuing of criminal summons against the accused by Law Development Centre magistrate Agustine Alule
However, DPP through Hanniffer Kasana picked interest in the matter and allowed Court to take it over but later dropped the charges against the accused person citing lack of evidence to support the prosecution.
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Mabirizi protested the move claiming that as a private prosecutor, the DPP didn’t consult him as stipulated in the law when she was dropping the charges insisting that the all actions were illegal.
But in his affidavit supporting the accused person, Amerit told Court that after taking over the matter, the DPP instructed Wandegeya police investigators to do fresh investigations and a number of witnesses including Mabirizi and leadership at Makerere university recorded statements.
Amerit insisted that after receiving a police investigation file, the DPP established that the evidence on the record was not enough to secure conviction, thus deciding to withdraw the charges against the accused person.
He further noted that for the DPP to drop the charges, she doesn’t need to consult any person including the private prosecutor.
“The constitution does not create a parallel prosecutorial authority in private citizen, and the attempt by the applicant to arrogate to himself powers that exclusively belongs to the DPP is a violation of the principle of prosecutorial independence and undermines the administration of justice,” Amerit insisted.
He further noted that Mabirizi doesn’t demonstrate any error of law or irregularities made in the process of withdrawing the charges thus rubbishing allegations that DPP abused the Court process.
He advised the presiding judge, Justice Emmanuel Baguma to dismiss the application with costs.
He also accused Mabirizi of wasting Courts time because he wanted the reinstatement of the charges without providing new evidence nor exceptional circumstances where the DPP errored when withdrawing the charges.
In his application Mabirizi accuses Bobi Wine of fraudulently securing a government scholarship to study a diploma in dance and drama from Makerere university illegally.
He explained that Bobi Wine sat his Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) in 1999 and in 2000, he applied for a slot at Makerere university but was not admitted because did not have money to facilitate his studies.
He claimed through his relative working at Makerere university, Bobi Wine was admitted on mature scheme entry when he was just 20 years even though the requirement was that any person to be admitted on mature entry, they had to be 25 years and above.
He further claimed that for any person to be allowed to enter on mature entry, they were have completed their lower education five years and above which Bobi Wine violated since he was admitted in 2000 yet he sat his UACE in 1999
The presiding judge set 30th of July 2025 to deliver his ruling on the matter.
