By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE –
FORMER Ministry of Health human resources development officer, Henry Kapoko, has appealed to the Lusaka High Court against his two and half-year jail sentence.

. Kapoko

Kapoko, who has cited eight grounds of appeal, has also asked Magistrate Lameck Mwale to stay his order to pay ?back the K40,000 he received as gratification from Esu school of nursing pending determination by the High Court.
He also applied for bail pending his appeal and wanted the court to outline similar bail conditions given in the matter in which he had been jailed.
Kapoko was on Monday sentenced to 39 months imprisonment after he was found guilty of abusing his authority and for corrupt practices.
The court also ordered him and his co-accused Esu School of Nursing director and shareholder Edwin Ushibantu to pay back to the Government K40,000 and K136,320 respectively.
However, Mr Kapoko, through his lawyer Kelvin Bwalya of KBF and Company, has appealed against the sentence stating that Mr Ng’ambi erred in law and fact when he held that there was no basis upon which he issued the letter to Esu School of Nursing commuting Government to paying for students at Esu School.
Kapoko argued that the trial court erred when it failed to appreciate that training as Government policy was discussed and approved by the Human Resources Development Committee (HRDC) and not the Ministerial Tender Committee (MTC).
He said that Mr Ng’ambi erred ignoring the evidence of some of the witnesses whose evidence demonstrated that no payment could leave the Ministry of Health without the direct or implied authority of the permanent secretary, thereby confirming that the controlling officer was aware of the letter of commitment and the students were being trained and payment was made for their training.
He argued that the court misdirected itself in law and fact by convicting Kapoko of soliciting a bribe from Esu School when he had no evidence from any witness that he had gotten a bribe.
He had since applied for bail pending the determination of his appeal by the High Court.
Kapoko who had filed a notice of appeal stated that ?the offences he had been jailed for were bailable.
He said that the court could order suspension of its order on conviction in a case where an appeal had been made.
Kapoko said his appeal was of merit and likely to succeed despite the only delay being that the court would soon go on recess.
Kapoko and Ushibantu have remained in prison while Ushibantu was yet to file in his appeal.