Solomon Muyita & Lominda Afedraru
1 May 2008
Kampala — In a case that is causing distress within the judicial service, a mid-level officer is being accused of raping a married woman and making her pregnant.
Daily Monitor has learnt that the police have charged Mr Henry Haduli, an assistant registrar attached to the Commercial Court in Kampala, with rape, following a complaint by an office attendant (names withheld) attached to the office of the Chief Justice at the High Court premises in Kampala.
At the time of the alleged rape, on August 23, 2007, Mr Haduli was Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki's personal assistant. The alleged rape was committed in the office of the Chief Justice, sources say.
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) also received the complaint and there is an ongoing investigation, according to the JSC secretary, Mr Stephen Kashaka, and the Registrar in charge of Research, Inspection and Investigation, Mr Henry Kaweesa Isabirye.
The disciplinary committee at the JSC only summons a judicial officer once a "prima facie" case has been established. But Mr Haduli has denied any wrongdoing.
Speaking to Daily Monitor last week, he said there is no way he could even have an affair with a subordinate far below his grade, and that he suspected the claims were influenced by his adversaries within the Judiciary. Mr Haduli was briefly transferred to Iganga as a magistrate in January 2008, but was returned to Kampala to take up his new assignment at the Commercial Court.
A source at the Directorate of Public Prosecutions said yesterday that the CID charged Mr Haduli with rape and on April 24 sent the criminal file to Buganda Road Court in Kampala for sanctioning. When contacted yesterday, Ms Carol Nabasa, the resident state attorney at the court, said: "I've seen the file but I am yet to peruse it and give legal advice."
This odd sex scandal is now the talk within Judiciary circles, especially in Kampala. Police records indicate that the alleged victim, a mother of three, is now heavily pregnant, having allegedly conceived following the rape.
Mr Haduli shared an office with his alleged victim. The alleged victim took her maternity leave on Tuesday. Sources close to her said she has since been abandoned in her marital house with her children by her husband after he learnt of the unclear circumstances in which she conceived.
The alleged victim, a resident of Keti Falawo Zone in Kawempe, Kampala, said in her statement to the police that she was raped in the evening at about 6:00pm after all the other workers in the Chief Justice's office had left.
"I remember very well that on August 23, 2007 at around 18:00hrs I was at the High Court doing my normal duties of cleaning. I closed all the windows and doors, and as I was getting out of the office, I saw Mr Henry Haduli enter the office but I did not know what he wanted."
"To my surprise, he grabbed me and covered my mouth, stopping me from making any alarm. He then untied his trousers and pulled out his penis as he held me tightly. He pulled my knickers and forced his penis into my vagina against my will," the statement reads in part.
She says she was at first reluctant to go public about the rape. "I got so disturbed and I failed to tell anyone the problems I had got, including my husband," she said.
The husband (not identified), with whom she claims she was having protected sex, learnt of her conception after a month. "I had to tell him what had happened to me," she says.
"My husband could not believe the allegation but he said I had an affair with Haduli...he said he could not continue to stay with me as a husband. He picked his clothes and moved to his parents' home, leaving me with the children."
The alleged victim eventually reported the case to her bosses in the Judiciary, who advised her to open a file at the CID headquarters and file a complaint with the JSC.
On March 17, Mr Lawrence Gidudu, the chief registrar of the Courts of Judicature, wrote to CJ Odoki seeking direction on the matter after Mr Haduli's denial. "I discussed the matter with Mr Henry Haduli...and he totally denied each and every allegation contained in the letter.
"On the contrary, he states that the complaint is a frame-up by staff attached to your lordship's chambers to perpetrate the bad blood that had developed between him and the said staff. In short, it's her word against his," Mr Gidudu said in a letter to CJ Odoki.
Mr Gidudu said the allegation made was of a serious nature as it is about a matter likely to offend "every rule of the Code of Judicial Conduct and the Public Service Regulations". He proposed to the CJ that the matter be sent to investigators and the JSC for further management. "A DNA test after delivery is crucial," Mr Gidudu said.
Sources at the Judiciary said the CJ tried to broker a meeting between his former personal assistant and the alleged victim's husband on March 25, but Mr Haduli did not attend the meeting, claiming he was busy attending some workshop. The charge and caution statement by police says Mr Haduli "committed a serious offence of rape contrary to Section 123 of the Penal Code act".
Mr Haduli, 47, a resident of Kireka, Namugongo Road at Kitonga, insists he only knew the woman as a fellow workmate under the CJ's office. "She was my junior, a subordinate and I couldn't say a word of love to her as she was not of my grade and status," he said in his police statement. He said that the woman could not have been raped when police guards and other court staff were still present at the premises. "Some of them leave the place beyond 6:30pm," he said.
Mr Haduli said he found it strange that the woman did not complain until after January this year when he was transferred from the CJ's office to Iganga as a senior grade one magistrate.
"At Iganga, I worked for three weeks and another posting letter came again, transferring me to the Commercial Court in Kampala, and since then I never had any complaint from (names withheld) that I raped her, not even a single day," he said.
The judicial officer said he only learnt about the case from his bosses in March. Rape is a capital offence which attracts up to a death sentence on conviction.
The alleged victim, who is said to have joined the Judiciary only last year, refused to talk to Daily Monitor when she was contacted: "This is already a matter known by the public, if someone wants to know about it, he or she can get details from the police file," she said on Tuesday at the High Court. It was not immediately possible to talk to CJ Odoki about the matter.
Daily Monitor has a policy of not naming rape or defilement victims or minors involved in crime.
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