The Commissioner for External Affairs of the shadowy Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU), Michael Katungi Mpeirwe, has been removed from his position by General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, following a damning U.S. indictment linking him to an alleged $58 million (approximately Shs200 billion) illegal arms deal involving a notorious Mexican drug cartel.
General Muhoozi Keainerugaba, who also serves as Chief of Defence Forces and is the founder of PLU, announced the dismissal in a late-night post on his X (formerly Twitter) account.
“I have decided to remove Michael Katungi as Commissioner External Affairs of PLU. He is also removed as a member of our Central Committee. From now on, only the Chairman will appoint the foreign committees of our movement,” he wrote.
The PLU, a loosely structured civic organisation linked to the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), has often been perceived as a platform for Muhoozi’s political ambitions, particularly during his earlier indications of a potential presidential bid in 2026.
Katungi’s dramatic fall from grace comes just days after prosecutors in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia unsealed criminal charges against him.
The indictment accuses Katungi of conspiring with Bulgarian national Peter Dimitrov Mirchev, Kenyan Elisha Odhiambo Asumo, and Tanzanian Subiro Osmund Mwapinga to supply military-grade weapons to the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), which is designated by the U.S. government as a foreign terrorist organisation.
According to court documents, the group allegedly sought to obtain falsified arms control documents to obscure the weapons’ true destination and even conducted a test shipment of 50 AK-47 rifles using a fraudulent end-user certificate from Tanzania.
Prosecutors say the wider conspiracy included attempts to procure drones, surface-to-air missiles, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, and ZU-23 anti-aircraft systems, with a total value exceeding €53 million.
One of the accused, Mirchev, is reportedly a known associate of infamous Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. Arrests in connection to the case have been made in Spain, Morocco, and Ghana—but Katungi remains at large.
His dismissal marks the most serious public fracture within PLU since June 2024, when the group’s head of mobilisation and disciplinary committee, Michael Mawanda, was arrested and remanded over allegations of embezzling more than Shs1 billion from war-loss compensation funds and conspiring to defraud an additional Shs3.4 billion. Despite being released on bail, Mawanda continues to hold his position within the organisation.
Though largely symbolic, Katungi’s ouster is widely viewed as a strategic effort by Muhoozi to contain the political fallout and protect PLU’s already fragile image. The move also highlights the often ruthless nature of internal party dynamics, where public loyalty can be swiftly revoked in the face of scandal.
For Katungi, who once moved comfortably within Uganda’s security and diplomatic circles, the dismissal is not merely the loss of a title—it signals a sharp descent into political obscurity. Once hailed as a key envoy for the PLU’s foreign engagement efforts, he now faces the twin pressures of international prosecution and domestic isolation.
Referencing Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon, where a desperate Party official pleads, “Comrade, don’t throw me out to the wolves,” the situation paints a stark picture for Katungi.
In his case, the wolves may not only be U.S. authorities with an open arrest warrant, but also the silence of Uganda’s political wilderness, where friends quickly disappear and relevance fades just as fast.
Attributes: Nile Post
Wetten auf deine Lieblingsmannschaft? LeonBet ist bereit.