David Balondemu, the Chairperson of the Kampala District Land Board and lawyer at Bloom Advocates spent the night at Luzira Prison. He was remanded by the Buganda Road Grade One Magistrate, Winnie Nankya on charges of obtaining money by false pretense and conspiracy to defraud.
He was arraigned before the court alongside Joseph Ibona, an accountant at Bloom Advocates, Ronald Kaweesa Tumusiime Kizito alias Denis, a carpenter from Mbogo Kawempe in Kampala, and lawyer Eric Geoffrey Mkwe.
The State Attorney Ivan Kyazze told the court that between November 2022 and April 2023, at Bloom Advocates, the accused individuals and others still at large deceived KG Unlimited LLC when they purportedly promised the company a contract for supplying agricultural drone sprayers and fertilizers to the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries and obtained US $553,000 under false pretenses.
This incident marks Balondemu’s return to Luzira Prison, occurring merely two weeks after his earlier release. Previously, he spent 16 days on remand for charges related to defrauding a Korean investor in a fake gold deal amounting to Shillings 2.2 billion.
The defendants are set to return to court on November 22nd for a ruling on their bail application after pleading not guilty to the charges. Their legal representation includes Caleb Alaka, Evans Ochieng, Hassan Kamba, Robert Bautu, John Isabirye, Mukasa Mbidde, and Andrew Kibumba.
