The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has justified the reason why they decided to hide Chief Magistrate Stella Atambo’s name from the application they filed in court seeking for search warrants.
In a replying affidavit to the application by Atambo, the commission says they did that so as not to comprise the investigations they were doing.
According to them, they were investigating her in connection to corruption and using her name would have jeopardized it as someone would have alerted her.
Atambo through her lawyer Danstan Omari, had challenged the way the application was filed saying hiding her name rendered it illegal.
However, EACC says the identification number used on the application sufficiently identified her for them to get the search warrant.
“It was necessary to redact the name of the Petitioner to avoid compromising the investigation by vanquishing the evidence. She is a well-known member of the judiciary and stating her full name in the application for warrants would have compromised the investigation,” reads court papers.
The commission argues that the application for warrants passes through many hands the clerk who presents the supporting affidavit for commissioning, the advocate who commissions the supporting affidavit, the court assistant who takes the application to the Magistrate and the Magistrate who considers the Application.
According to the affidavit, the redaction of names serves to preserve the integrity of the investigation and it ensures that the subject matter of the investigation does not dissipate.
It further ensures that information does not leak and the subject matter of the investigation remains intact.
It was also their contention that if the magistrate who issued the orders wanted to know the name, he would have asked but he did not.
“It was always open to the Magistrate to require such disclosure as he deemed necessary to make the order and that the court and ruling issued by the learned Magistrate allowing the application reflects that he was satisfied with the material before to grant the orders sought,” reads court papers.
