Judge Manyungwa arrested

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) yesterday arrested High Court judge Joseph Manyungwa on allegation that he abused his office by writing a judgement on a case he did not preside over.

The bureau’s senior public relations officer Egrita Ndala said in a statement ACB received a complaint on May 14 2010 that Manyungwa got a file under civil cause number 2158 of 2004 from the chambers of Judge Maclean Kamwambe.

Ndala said Kamwambe was the judge who presided over the case, but the suspect got the case file without his knowledge and delivered judgement in favour of Fargo Limited.

“Justice Manyungwa proceeded to write a judgement on the file in favour of Fargo Limited who were the defendants in the matter, despite the fact that the hearing of the matter did not take place before the said Justice Manyungwa.

“The complaint further alleged that Justice Manyungwa received K2 000 000 from Fargo Limited,” she added.

Ndala claimed investigations into the allegations by the graft busting body established that Manyungwa abused his office as a High Court judge for the advantage of the defendant.

Added Ndala: “Justice Kamwambe wrote a judgement which was in favour of the plaintiff, Samitha Kulasinghe. As a result, two contradictory judgements were written on the matter.”

Manyungwa was taken to court where he was charged with one count of misuse of public office contrary to Section 25 (1) of the Corrupt Practices Act. As we went to press, it was not known if the judge had been given bail.