I want to start by thanking our Badman General, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, our Chief of Defence Forces and Chairman of the Patriotic League of Uganda, and also the President of the Republic of Uganda, Gen. (Rtd.) Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, for declaring war against corruption.
When the President appointed Hon. Balaam Atenyi as Minister of Local Government, the patriotic minister has never spent his time sitting in an air-conditioned office like the previous minister.
Mr. Balaam’s office is in the field, exposing and arresting corrupt local government officials.
The move by Mr. Balaam has forced other institutions established to fight corruption, such as the IGG, Auditor General and police, to wake up and start walking the talk.
Ugandans can bear me witness that the IGG was almost rendered useless and was called a barking dog without biting, but now Hon. Balaam’s approach has woken them up.
Many officials are being interdicted, while others are in prison.
Now that pressure is taking a serious trend, investigators are revisiting all the files that were investigated and cleared by the former IGG administration headed by Hon. Olivia Betty Kamya.
To start with are the corruption files involving UNRA engineers.
The first file will be that of Engineer Umar Katongole, the former UNRA engineer, who could be arrested following the revisiting of the investigation report on alleged corruption.
When you look at the report prepared by the investigators, which is supposed to be used to prosecute Eng. Umar Katongole, it is all about the Shs700m which the report claims Eng. Katongole allegedly diverted through the creation of ghost roads.
After UNRA was merged with the Ministry of Works, Eng. Katongole worked as a Principal Engineer in the Ministry of Works.
It should be remembered that in July 2019, Eng. Katongole was arrested by the Inspectorate of Government (IGG) alongside Hawah Sengedo, a Senior Community Development Officer for Wobulenzi Town Council.
Eng. Katongole was arraigned before the Anti-Corruption Court in Kampala, facing charges of illicit enrichment and money laundering, linked to properties and funds valued at over Shs6.2bn, which were alleged to be disproportionate to his official income between 2008 and 2015.
However, with the fresh move, Eng. Katongole may not survive another arrest, as right now there is high competition among the investigation teams to show Mzee Kaguta that they are not sleeping.
More details on Eng. Katongole will follow.
Long live Gen. Yoweri Kaguta, and long live our Badman General Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
The writer is a senior veteran journalist.
