At least 14 government officials have so far been arrested by the Anti- Corruption Unit- State house which was launched by President Yoweri Museveni on 10th December 2018, to effectively work and assist the already existing anti corruption agencies including; the IGG, Office of the Auditor General, Anti corruption Court, PPDA, Uganda Police among others.
Several cases have been reported to the unit since its inception, through the available channels leading to a number of operations as seen over the past few months.
The unit carried out its first operation On 20th December at the Wakiso land offices over allegations of corruption. During the visit, five officials were arrested, these are; Mr. Mwanje Andrew, Ms Doreen Mpumwire-data entry clerk, Ms Katushabe Monica, Mr. Jaffery Bakalaze and Mr. Herbert Kavuma the senior physical planner who was arrested red-handed soliciting a bribe from a citizen.
On 17th January, the unit went to Tororo Municipality after a number of whistleblowers reported incidences of misappropriation of public funds and three officials were arrested. The corrupt officials were; Mr. Akuma Muzamil -the Tororo Municipality town clerk, Denis Okatch -Municipal Engineer and Mr. Etuku Ejolu Shadrack- Roads Inspector.
These were arraigned before the Anti-corruption court on 25th January 2019 and further investigations are still ongoing.
Subsequently, the unit visited Arua district on 13th February 2019, following allegations of financial mismanagement and other irregularities by the head teacher and bursar of Arua public Secondary school, mismanagement of over 436 Million meant for the construction of Mango road and Afra lane in Arua Municipality.
Those arrested in Arua include; Mr. Erejo Kamil Rajab - Municipality treasurer, and Mr. Kasajja Kayiru- former town clerk. These were charged in the Anti Corruption court with Abuse of office and conspiracy to defraud. Others including the town engineer, procurement officer, internal auditor and storekeeper all recorded statements with police to aid in investigations.
In the past two weeks, the unit visited Mbarara Municipality headquarters after receiving reports of district leaders allocating public land and houses to themselves, misappropriation of over 360m meant for Koranorya road, abuse of office and attempted sell of Kakyeka stadium among others. Some of the district officials that were arrested and arraigned in court were, Cuthbert Esoku- Chief Administrative Officer, Mr. Godlive Nayebare- Senior land Management officer,Karuhanga Rosalia -The Human Resource officer and Himbisa Emmanuel-Senior Land Management officer
In a follow up investigation on Mbarara, the acting town clerk Edward Lwanga and Mr. Richard Kalele the Municipality treasurer who were also arrested for misappropriation of over 90 million allegedly spent on Capacity Building. Member of Parliament Charles Ngabirano has also today been summoned at Police CID, Kibuli for interrogation. Investigations are still ongoing with Mbarara Municipality.
In addition to the major operations around the country, the unit on 19th February in Jinja arrested two URA officials, Mr. Hassan Miiro and Mr. Ferdinand Albaker Wamala for soliciting a bribe of 45million to help a business man dodge taxes worth 3 billion.
These were arraigned in court on 27th February 2019 together with Ms. Namakula Sarah, clerk Chief Magistrate’s court at Nabweru who was arrested for soliciting a 2 million bribe to fast track the bail hearing of a suspect.
All those that have been arraigned in court have been interdicted from their offices.
