Council business in Moroto district came to a standstill when a man suspected to be mentally impaired descended on the Matheniko County MP, John Baptist Lokii (NRM), and beat him up.

According to the police in Moroto, the legislator was attending the district council meeting at the Chamber Hall today, when a man only identified as Piriri emerged suddenly and hit him, leaving him with multiple injuries. 

Jude Nasucha, the Moroto district police commander in Moroto says the MP was rescued by police. The attacker, a common face, often seen at functions, within Moroto and the neighbouring districts of Kaabong and Kotido, was arrested and detained. 

Nasucha says that police will undertake a medical examination on the attacker to ascertain his mental status before considering charges against him.

Nasucha adds that if found to be mentally impaired, Piriri will be transferred to the National Referral Mental Hospital in Butabika, otherwise, he will be charged with assault.

According to police in Moroto, this is the second attack on the MP this month by the same person, who has allegedly assaulted a number of people including Police officers and businessmen. 

However, the MP claims that Piriri is being used by his political opponents.

The central bank governor Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile has said that his juniors never furnished him with reports on the liquidation of at least three closed banks.

Bank of Uganda is a facing a parliamentary probe, triggered by a 2017 forensic audit report by the the auditor general John Muwanga on the irregular operations of the bank and the controversial closure and sale of several commercial banks since 1993. 

And now, Mutebile said as governor, he told the parliamentary committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase), that he was never briefed with liquidation reports for International Credit Bank Limited, Greenland bank and Uganda Cooperative bank. The three banks were closed in the period between 1998 and 1999. 

The other banks whose closure is under probe include Teefe Trust bank, Greenland bank, National Bank of Commerce, Global Trust bank and Crane bank. 

In his report, the auditor general observed that no asset movement schedule or ledgers indicating assets at closure, assets sold, selling price, a period of sale, assets not sold, performing and nonperforming loans, was provided to support asset movements in the statement of affairs of the three closed banks.

"…Although the statement of affairs indicated that all the physical assets and customer loans had been sold, Bank of Uganda records indicated that the liquidator did not sell some of the assets previously owned by Cooperative bank," reads the audit report.

Muwanga said that because of the incomplete asset movement schedules, he was not able to verify the movement of assets from Shs 117 billion at closure to Shs 19 billion as stated in the statement of affairs of June 30, 2016.

Cosase chairperson Abdul Katuntu demanded for the reports showing the movement of assets at the time the central bank was managing the liquidation of the banks.

"There were regular reports and in those reports you would be able to see movement of assets. However when BOU now directly took over, these reports are not there. Now that these reports are not there, the auditor general could not verify the movement of assets. So the questions are; why are there no reports during a time when you were there in managing the period of liquidation yet the other professions were providing the reports? And those reports would indicate movement of assets. That’s the query." said Katuntu. 
 
Ben Sekabira, the director financial markets development coordination said that the situation in Greenland Bank was different as the auditors were engaged from day one, and there was an inventory conducted as the issues in Greenland were more challenging.
 
"Frequent reporting was not required. These are the differences that existed. BOU did not want to report to itself, it wouldn't issue a report on itself, so the decision was made to appoint auditors. Because it is expensive, you can't do an audit every year," he said.
 
Katuntu questioned whether the central bank had dedicated an internal person to manage the liquidation process and whether the person was not reporting to the governor. The Cosase committee learnt that the role of a liquidator had been assigned to Sekabira alongside audit firm, KPMG.
 
But BOU governor Tumusiime-Mutebile said he never received any reports of the liquidation process. Sekabira told the committee that he had been reporting to someone else below the governor. 

"Mr chairman, I’m sorry I don’t remember receiving any reports about this matter…Sekabira says he had no reports for me because he was far from me - below me. He was reporting to somebody else but he didn’t say who it was…so who’s this person?" Mutebile wondered a now angry Mutebile. 
 
Although he first feigned ignorance saying many years had gone by for him to remember, Sekabira eventually mentioned the embattled former executive director supervision Justin Bagyenda, a one Apollo Obbo and Margaret Matovu as the people he was reporting to. 

The committee resolved to issue summons to Bagyenda to appear and explain why she and others never furnished the governor with reports regarding liquidation of assets of some of the closed banks. Katuntu directed that the three appear on Thursday alongside BOU other officials.

Lamwo district security has given the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) soldiers a two-week ultimatum to remove their national flag off Ugandan land and return to their country.

More than 30 SPLA soldiers invaded Ngomoromo village in Lokung sub-county several weeks ago and established a barrier six kilometres into Ugandan territory. They hoisted their national flag in the contested area, saying it belongs to South Sudan. 

Now James Nabinson Kidega, the Lamwo resident district commissioner and chairperson district security committee, says they held a security meeting and resolved that the "invaders" immediately leave or they be forced out. 

"We had a security meeting where by we agreed as the security team of Lamwo and the team has come to a resolution that our neighbouring [soldiers] who have crossed into our borders must move back where their border is. We have given them two weeks." Kidega said. 

He added that in the meantime Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) will be accompanying farmers to their harvest their crops. Kidega says they will stop at nothing to protect the Ugandan borders. 

Residents have repeatedly accused the invaders of waylaying and molesting them before looting their food stuff. This is not the first time South Sudanese soldiers are invading Uganda. In August 2015, at least 200 armed South Sudanese militias from Magwi county encroached nine kilometres into Ugandan territory still in Lokung sub-county in Lamwo district.

They claimed the disputed border area belongs to them but were flushed out by UPDF. In December the same year, more than 300 armed SPLA soldiers confronted Chongqing International Construction Corporation (CICO) workers and forced them to stop work on the 87.4km Acholibur-Musingo road stretch, saying the contractor had crossed into South Sudan by seven kilometres.

In December 2015, Uganda and South Sudan signed a memorandum of understanding to ease border tension and allow the demarcation of the disputed approximately 470 kilometres long boundary. The African Union gave both countries a deadline to resolve their boundary issues by 2017 but little progress has been made.

One year ago the unthinkable happened in Zimbabwe: Robert Mugabe fell from power.

Police is investigating the whereabouts of a senior three student of Lubiri high school in Mengo, a Kampala suburb.
 
16-year-old Daniella Nakazi disappeared from the school boarding section on October 30 and has not been seen since. A case was reported at Old Kampala police station the next day. Information from the school management indicates that they only got to know about Nakazi's disappearance a day after she went missing.

However, Nakazi's elder brother Eria Kavulu who has been staying with the teenager in Nakawuka in Wakiso district said the school only realized that she was missing after he went there to visit her but they couldn't trace her.

One of Nakazi's classmates, who was questioned by detectives from Old Kampala police station, says she last saw the missing student walking to a waiting vehicle outside the school on October 30.

Kavulu says he has been waiting and asking everywhere for the whereabouts of his sister in vain. 

"She has never come home or gone to school again. We have asked everywhere but got nothing. We are now very worried," Kavulu said.


The Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson, Luke Owoyesigyire, says investigations have been ongoing since the day the complaint was filed but there hasn't been any success in tracing Nakazi's whereabouts.

The trial of Makerere University lecturer, Prof Christopher Bakuneta has hit a snag following the failure by the state to trace for the key and only witness. 

It is alleged that on March 27, 2016, at Makerere University, Bakuneta a lecturer at the college of Natural Science allegedly had forceful sexual intercourse with his student, Vanesha Ntegesa who was renting and living inside his garage without her consent.

The case was scheduled for hearing on Tuesday before Justice Jane Francis Abodo but prosecution led by Catherine Akello asked for an adjournment on grounds that the complainant who is also the main witness had yet to be traced. 

Akello said, the victim's phone number was not reachable and she was no longer at Makerere University, which was her address three years ago. Justice Abodo accepted to adjourn the matter to December 4, 2018 as per the initial set of guidelines for the current criminal court session on Sexual Gender-based Violence (SBGV) cases.

The guidelines which were agreed upon at the time when the session started, gave the state only one adjournment after which the case will be dismissed.

"We are still looking for the witness. We don't know where she went to. Let's hope we find her by the time we return," Akello said after the adjournment.

Prof Bakuneta was arrested on March 28, 2016 and remanded to Luzira until October when he was released on bail. Justice Yasin Nyanzi while granting him a cash bail of Shs 1 million based his ruling on a letter which was tendered in court by his lawyers.

The letter had been written allegedly by the victim in April 2016, asking the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to drop the charges of rape against the professor on grounds that what happened between the two of them did not amount to rape and she had already forgiven him as asked by the lecturer's wife and children. 

When asked about the letter, the prosecution team looked surprised, saying they had never been briefed about the letter.

Choked with swelling garbage piles, Iganga Municipal Council has invited Danish bio-engineering firm Transform, here. The company will help to convert the overflowing garbage into biofertilisers.

Iganga is an old town, dating back to the 1890s when the protectorate district administrators set up its headquarters at a place called Bukoyo. This is three kilometres from the present-day municipal council with the first Asian setting up a shop along present-day Balita Lane.

Located in eastern Uganda along the Trans African Highway, 120km from Kampala, Iganga has a population of 54,000 people. Like other urban centres, it is a bustling town; with many challenges as its activities vary from agriculture, commercial, education and medical services.

“Worth noting is that all the activities end up in waste generation which the council must handle so as to create a clean and healthy environment,” observes Iganga deputy mayor Enock Ngazula.  

Solid waste generated daily is between nine and 12 tonnes, he says. And the waste is projected to hit between 45 and 60 tonnes per day once the council borders are expanded.

Currently, the solid waste is classified as 80% bio-degradable refuse, which is dumped in a temporary dumping site. But there has been growing discontent among residents on how authorities are handling the garbage.

The town’s leadership blames a lack of funding for the filth in the town. They point out how the only functioning refuse truck is not able to collect all the generated garbage. With Transform, working through its subsidiary firm, Biofertiliser Africa, the plan is to convert part of the garbage into briquettes for cooking and firing factories.

“We have invited Transform to help us address the problem of garbage in our town. The garbage will be converted into biofertlisers at their factory and the fertilisers supplied to the farmers to boost production,” the deputy mayor said.

“While we are removing garbage from the streets, we are also protecting the environment as this collected garbage is also to be converted into briquettes for use in homes, factories, schools and others,” he said.

Two experts from Denmark led by Prof Jorgen Logstrup and Henrik Christiansen, have been to Iganga to demonstrate how the new waste-to-value technology works. Prof Jorgen said the project will be at no cost to the municipal council as studies have indicated local authorities are grappling with garbage heaps due to lack of funds.

In appreciation, Iganga has provided land where the waste treatment plant will be located.

“The good thing about this project, it does not need a landfill as is the case with other garbage disposal facilities. The garbage is expected to be consumed as soon as it is delivered at the factory,” Transform country director, Abdul Dedya said.

According to Dedya, Transform is to inject $1.2 million as initial capital into Iganga waste management project expected to last 20 years.

“Our installed plant capacity is to produce 40 tonnes per week of bio-fertilisers and 15 tonnes of briquettes daily depending on the availability of the bio-waste,” Dedya said.

“Our market will be Iganga town, the immediate surrounding areas, those beyond and the regional market as demand for bio-fertilisers to boost agriculture and clean energy is there,” he added.

According to Eng. James Mawa, a bio-engineering expert, organic waste can be transformed into bio-fertiliser through composting which is a biological process. Organic substances in the waste are degraded using air.

“The compost has a controlling effect on plant fungal diseases on a number of plants which controls spread of diseases,” he observes.

The application of compost may reduce the need for spraying pesticides, Eng. Mawa says. 

He said the other option is heat composting where organic waste is mixed with sludge and composted in an isolated bioreactor. At the correct mixing ratio of sludge and waste, the temperature will rise within 48 hours to 70 degrees centigrade when air is introduced mechanically.

In this way, the input materials are hygienic, dehydrated and stabilised. Under careful process monitoring, organic substances are degraded under release of water, carbon dioxide and nitrous compounds. All exhausts are purified in a biofilter.

After about five to seven days the end product is ready for application as fertiliser.

In marking prostate cancer awareness month [November], the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) last Friday held a live Facebook/Twitter session to sensitize the public. DR FRED OKUKU, an oncologist at UCI, was online to discuss prostate cancer. Yudaya Nangonzi brings you excerpts from some of the questions and answers:

Briefly tell us about our work…

Cancer is a very challenging disease. It is difficult to treat and requires a lot of expertise and resources. At UCI, we receive close to 5,500 new patients annually. We have facilities to treat cancers like the chemotherapy unit, radiation unit, surgical and the palliative care team.

We also have counsellors that keep talking to people with or without cancer.

At what age should one start worrying about prostate cancer?

We start worrying at age 40 because there are very few people who get prostate cancer below that age. But, you should also worry or check more when you have a family history of the cancer because we take you to be at high risk. We need to even screen you as early as 35 years if you have a family member with prostate.

Why do men fear to be diagnosed with prostate cancer?

Just like any other cancers, it is fatal and kills. Just make sure you go for checkups because that is the reason we all worry about this disease. It is the commonest cancer among men in Uganda.

Some drops of urine remain and come out late, leaving my pants wet. Could it have bearing with prostate cancer?

What you could be having is terminal dysuria, a urinary tract infection that comes with painful urination. Usually, you don’t empty the bladder; there is often some residue.

As you grow older and your prostate becomes bigger, the volume of urine that stays is a little higher. Sometimes, it is just an issue of contraction to allow urine to leave. This should not really worry you if you are young and it’s just a little drop. If it continues, it should worry you.

Is cancer curable?

True. Cancer is a curable disease if diagnosed early. Cancer is in four stages with stage one being early and four considered late.

If one of our relatives succumbs to prostate cancer, is there a possibility that more relatives have it?

It’s true that prostate cancer can be hereditary and we worry if one has died. We regard you as a high risk individual because your chances of developing prostate cancer can be about 25 per cent. If you come from the same family, your chances are as high as 50 per cent. The more family members, the more risk. We usually request that you come for screening early.

How is prostate cancer diagnosed?

It is diagnosed by taking a tissue or biopsy from your prostate. Normally, we also look at symptoms but some men do not have them and it makes prostate cancer a very difficult disease.

There are men without symptoms but have advanced stages of prostate cancer. So, every man needs to have a check especially if you have urinary problems but others may not have any symptoms.

There are few things we ask for like symptoms; we also put a finger in your rectum to feel how big the prostate is, in addition to ultra sound check and blood test known as [prostate-specific antigen]. Those three results are done by a doctor and if we find the results abnormal, we can do further tests including a biopsy.

What are the signs and symptoms of prostate cancer?

Initially, signs are associated with the urinary tract. Your prostate is just below the bladder. When you have the cancer, your prostate becomes bigger and the signs are usually associated with your inability to pass urine, infections or blood in urine.

For some men, you may have erectile dysfunction, wake up many times to pass urine, hesitant to pass urine because of blockage or your urine flow is small or dripping instead of passing like a tap.

Late signs include bone pains, in the back, yellow anaemia and other complicated issues associated with cancers.

Is there screening [of prostate cancer]?

Yes. Every week, Monday to Friday, we have a doctor who sits in our shade at UCI. You can go there and register and be screened free of charge.

What are the risk factors that cause prostate cancer?

If you have a strong family history of prostate cancer and age. However, in Uganda, don’t expect to see men in 20s having it but it has a peak age between 60 and 70. 

Other risk factors are not eating right foods, not exercising, eating too much fast food and inability to cut and be in the normal Body Mass Index (BMI). Foods that can reduce on the risk of prostate cancer include cherries, tomatoes and watermelons [which] are high in lycopene, berries, and all vegetables.

There is also research that red wine can cut down on some toxins but this does not mean you should take all the red wine in the city. However, there’s some evidence that it can cut on your risk of prostate cancer and cancer of the heart.

Is there vaccination against prostate cancer?

Prostate cancer is not caused by viruses and vaccination is only done for diseases caused by an infection. So, vaccination for prostate cancer is currently not possible but researchers are developing vaccines that can boost your immunity to generally fight cancer.

One of the things that cancer does when in your body is that it puts down your immunity to fight infections. That is one of the ways in which cancers have managed to invade the body.

You need to eat well, exercise regularly, and be active in any way to boost your immunity?

Can prostate cancer affect one’s fertility rate.

Yes. One of the things I mentioned earlier that one of the late signs of prostate cancer is erectile dysfunction which means a man’s inability to have an erection.

How often should one screen for prostate cancer?

Usually, every year a man needs to go and have a test.

Does sexual displacement put you at risk of prostate cancer?

Yes, it puts you at risk and one of the treatments especially for late prostate cancer is to put down your testosterone. We do this by surgery and remove your testicles or give you drugs in what we call hormonal treatment.

How common is prostate cancer?

It is the commonest cancer among men in Uganda and in many countries neighbouring us; it is the number one cancer.

Can other types of cancers be tested for one to know the early stage?

Not all cancers can be tested or screened. Screening is a process where you are attempting to catch cancer in its early stage in people who don’t have cancer. If you have cancer and come to us, that is called diagnosis.

There are a few cancers that we screen like cancer of the cervix, colon cancer, breast cancer, cancer of the lung mainly recommended for people who smoke to see if they are developing anything in their lungs and prostate cancer.

All these places have areas where it is easy for the doctor to touch and feel. But it is difficult for the others to screen like blood cancer and leukaemia. But should one have any symptoms, we of course act immediately.

I have swollen glands in the groin and neck….

Those swollen glands are called lymph nodes which is one of the ways through which cancer spreads. There are three main ways in which cancer moves; blood circulation, lymph nodes and local extension in the neighbouring area where the cancer has begun. For instance, in the breast, it spreads in the neighbouring breast tissue and then to the chest and invades other parts of the body.

So, if you have [swollen] lymph nodes, you need to have a check to ensure this is not something dangerous.

Are there any cases of prostate cancer below the age of 45?

Yes. This is especially with people who have one or two or three members of their family who have prostate cancer. Such people start cancer at an early age.

Any prevention tips…

Generally speaking, there are many diseases that you can fight. As a key rule, there are certain things that you shouldn’t do. One, alcohol has been proven to increase your risk of cancer. Two, smoking is a risk factor for many cancers including leukaemia and cancers in different organs.

Three, HIV and other viral infections; please avoid any sorts of viruses. The reason why HIV patients develop cancer is that the HIV hits the immune surveillance system that fights cancer. So, this puts HIV patients at risk.

The other thing is to mind your diet; vegetables and fruits have anti-toxicants that help get rid of toxins. The foods we eat have a lot of toxins. For example, when you eat burnt parts of roasted meat, it puts you at a very high [risk of cancer]. You need to eat less of red meat including pork that many confuse for white meat yet it’s purely red meat.

Please settle for less processed meat and more white meat like fish and chicken to cut on your risk of cancer. Ugandans, we need to be knowledgeable about these things because knowledge is power. If your body mass index (BMI) is above 30, then you need to start worrying because high BMI predisposes you to many diseases like diabetes, hypertension and cancer.

nangonzi@observer.ug

Parliamentarians are on the defensive in face of allegations that some have received financial perks to support the writing of a law to regulate the production of sugar in Uganda.

MPs first debated the draft law on November 15, throwing out a minority report by Nelson Lufafa (Butembe), which was pushing for the government line of zoning sugar producers.

The government policy literally protects the already established sugar producers from competition from newcomers as it prohibits licensing of new sugar mills to open up within a radius of 25km of an existing factory.

For a new mill to be licensed, its proprietors must satisfy the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) that it has a nucleus sugarcane-growing estate of at least 500 hectares.

During the second reading of the draft bill on Tuesday, November 20, the state minister for Industry Michael Werikhe unsuccessfully tried to convince MPs to accept the government proposal. He told them that the law will not affect the newly established sugar factories as it will not be applied retrospectively.

Werikhe was not believed since previously, during a retreat organised by the ministry of Finance, at Lake Victoria Serena Resort Kigo, an idea was mooted for government to acquire a loan to compensate recently established sugar factories that are within the 25km radius of the already established sugar mills.

The retreat was organised for members of parliament Trade, Industry and Tourism committee along with their counterparts on the National Economy committee.

“The ministry invited us to explain the loan performance and the level of national growth but the minister, Matia Kasaija, provided no details on the performance of the economy. Immediately he got off the [podium], they invited some man from State House to make a presentation on the Sugar Bill,” Mukono South MP Johnson Muyanja Ssenyonga told The Observer.

Ssenyonga is a member of the committee on National Economy. Other members of the National Economy committee said that while they took on the State House official, their colleagues on the Trade, Industry and Tourism committee appeared to have been part of the “deal.”

“You could see that they had received prior briefing, and, the State House official appeared disturbed by the prodding he received from the rest of us,” Manjiya MP John Baptist Nambeshe said.

Other MPs on the National Economy committee argued that acquiring a loan for purposes of compensating sugar millers before relocating them to new areas would be another avenue for increasing the debt burden on the taxpayers.

Sugar bags

Before the three-day retreat at Kigo, the Trade, Industry and Tourism committee had visited sugar millers and sugarcane outgrowers in Buikwe, Jinja, Mayuge, Kaliro, Masindi and Hoima districts.

From each sugar factory, the MPs visited, each went away with at least a 50kg bag of sugar. At one of the well-established factories, the proprietors allegedly handed a huge stash of cash to a flamboyant youthful MP to distribute to his colleagues.

The MP, however, angered his colleagues when he reportedly disappeared with all the money. They responded by voting against the interests of the funder. Some MPs whom The Observer spoke to on Tuesday claimed that the said MP again showed up last week in parliament to persuade them to support Lufafa’s minority report because it best represented the interests of the sugar producer.

Some MPs claimed that some of their colleagues had pocketed about Shs 10 million to support the zoning of sugar producers on grounds that newcomers should not benefit from efforts of the old-timers.

The argument advanced is that the old-timers such as Madhvani’s Kakira Sugar and Mehta’s Lugazi-based Sugar Corporation of Uganda Ltd had invested in outgrowers. Allowing a new investor to set up a factory would subject them to unfair competition.

These were met with counter arguments that the old-timers were exploiting the outgrowers, and the only way outgrowers will enjoy competitive prices is by allowing competition.

Some of the new investors are also reported to have reached out to the MPs with financial incentives to vote against the zoning clause. Some of the MPs who are accused of being behind the bribery scheme pleaded innocence when The Observer spoke to them on Tuesday but none wanted to be quoted on the record.

One of them from western Uganda who is said to have been part of the racket claimed that he did not attend most of the committee meetings since he was out of the country. Another MP said to be promoting the interests of a big sugar corporation said, “they are accusing me because they know that [the sugar producer] is my friend and based in my constituency.”

sadabkk@observer.ug

The managing director of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), Richard Byarugaba, has called on Ugandans to save, especially now that they are living longer lives.

Byarugaba, who was speaking at the third northern region members’ meeting in Lira on November 19, said saving with NSSF is the most sure way of being guaranteed a safe retirement.

“We introduced voluntary contribution so that people can save by themselves because we have done research and found out that it’s only 20 per cent of the population that have another form of investment or saving to help them when they retire. But maybe because of our history full of instabilities, we love to consume our money yet today we live longer. That’s why now only two per cent of our members die before accessing their money,” Byarugaba said.

He added that in the last year, NSSF registered a six per cent growth resulting from improvement in the economy, improved investment in infrastructure by government, which is a major borrower from NSSF, increase in foreign direct investment, reduction in inflation and the depreciation of the Uganda shilling.

Byarugaba said there has also been improvement in compliance by members because of continued engagements.

“We actively engaged our customers and our compliance improved by about 80 per cent in three months. We have also introduced SMS alerts and NSSF App so that employees report on their employers if they don’t see a message acknowledging receipt of their contribution,” Byarugaba said.

Previously, a member’s meeting would only be held in Kampala where members were told about the status of their money, how much has been collected, and which investment ventures have been invested in and what interest NSSF is giving to savers.

This year, NSSF announced that it was going to pay 15 per cent as interest to its savers. The fund also surpassed the Shs 1 trillion in income bringing its total deposits to Shs 9.4 trillion.

“It’s your responsibility to know what your money is doing; is it making for you money and where do you want us to invest it?” Byarugaba said.

Geoffrey Ssajjabi, the head of business at NSSF, said the Fund has 17 branches, 30 outreaches and four sub-branches across the country which their customers should contact for services.

He also called on employers to register and fully pay for their workers to avoid litigation. About 30 per cent of the two million NSSF contributors are from northern Uganda. Participants like Patrick Odongo asked why NSSF was only investing in projects like housing estates in Nsimbe and Temangalo in the central region while neglecting the north yet they are also contributors.

In allaying his fears, Byarugaba answered that when they lend money to government, it is used to build infrastructure like roads that are also in northern Uganda. 

bakerbatte@observer.ug

Alice Nyadeng had been sitting inside Kyangwali HC III children’s ward on a bench since 7am by the time we arrived at the health facility at around 11am recently. Nyadeng looked exhausted.

According to Nyadeng, 32, she had an appointment with the doctor three days ago but had not been able to see any; every time she got an appointment, it was cancelled because the doctor had to see other patients in ‘critical’ condition.

“My daughter has unending cough, yellow eyes and sweats a lot; so, nurses at Maratatu HC II referred me here last week but I have not been able to see the doctor. Sometimes I think they treat me like this because I’m a refugee,” she said through an interpreter.

When you walk through the gate, you notice that the outpatient department is typically crowded, the antenatal, postnatal and the wards are equally crowded. As for Beata who has just delivered, there is not much help and she does not know when she will leave. She had delivered the previous night but had not seen a doctor.

“I did not have any complications but the nurse [midwife] advised that I see the doctor, the challenge is that I have waited; I want to leave but they have kept me here,” she said.

Nyadeng and Beata are among the many locals and refugees who fail to see doctors at the facility. Some locals say things are made worse by the increasing number of sick refugees arriving at Kyangwali Refugee Camp in Hoima district.

Omuhereza Rwemera Mazirane, the LC III chairman, says his people are suffering more because the health centre which does not have enough staff, let alone infrastructure and medicines; now has to contend with rising numbers of refugees. He also said doctors are shunning the facility because of poor working conditions, remoteness of the area and are overworked.

“With this population, we want a hospital, not a health centre; we don’t have doctors, ambulances; my people are suffering. Hoima regional referral hospital is 90km from here,” he said.

“Since the 1960s, we have been good neighbours with the refugees, the challenge is that refugees and UPDF are grabbing our land; as nationals, we have become beggars.”

He said refugees with identification cards can easily get land and other services faster than the locals.

Doctors’ pains

Dr Justus Timbigamba, the in-charge of Kyangwali, admitted that what patients are saying is true but there is nothing he can do. He also told diplomats from the European Union and Norwegian ambassador Susan Eckey who were visiting that Kyangwali Health Centre III has a catchment population of 57,700 people, of whom 30 per cent are refugees.

“We are incapacitated. The facility has only one government doctor, although partners like United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other organisations have helped us recruit, the doctors are overwhelmed,” he said.

The diplomats were in Hoima district for a three-day retreat to assess the needs of the health facility; they also visited Kyangwali Refugee Settlement and interacted with refugees.

According to Hugo Verbist, the Belgian ambassador in Uganda, the new EU humanitarian aid for 2018 prioritizes the provision of rapid and good-quality emergency assistance including medical services to newly arrived refugees, especially those from South Sudan and DR Congo.

In 2017, the EU allocated €65 million in humanitarian assistance and €20 million to build the self-reliance of refugees. Timbigamba explained that Kyangwali HC III is supposed to serve 10,000 people but handles up to 57,272 patients annually. The facility handles about 2,100 on a monthly basis, according to the managers; at least 80 patients receive treatment daily.

“We have only three doctors and what pains mostly is that they sleep three in one house, something that is very inconveniencing to them. Patients are not spared either; males and females share wards at times,” he said.

“Doctors that are posted here feel humiliated; a whole degree holder to sleep three in a room is an abuse, so they go.”

Timbigamba said NGOs recruit doctors who leave once their contracts are up.

“We have seen cases where NGOs recruit doctors for a contract of three months, most of them don’t renew but just go to Kampala; so, we go for the second or third best,” he said.

The health facility also faces other challenges. Timbigamba said the ministry of Health sends a mere Shs 1.2 million every quarter which cannot run the facility for two weeks. According to him, with 60 per cent of the patients in the wards being refugees, the administrators believe there should also be planning for the refugees.

Daniel Muhairwe, the MP for Buhaguzi county, admitted that the area is a catchment but explained that refugees are also human beings and the Ugandan government is responsible for them.

“It’s a commitment as a country to take care of them; our biggest challenge here is space. Kyangwali sub-county alone has 170,000 people; remember this is a HC III in books but on the ground it’s a hospital; so, we should upgrade it,” he said.

Dr Nicholas Kwikiriza, the acting district health officer, said the only option is to upgrade the facility. William Carlos, the ambassador of Ireland in Uganda, acknowledged the need to commit more resources. Other ambassadors were outraged at the shameful state of the health centre.

“The EU gives large amounts of money to get the refugees a livelihood because if they are able to sustain themselves, it’s better since they will be more responsible for themselves,” Dr Albrecht Conze, the ambassador of Germany, said.

“We are shocked by the state of the health centre in Kyangwali; it is below Ugandan standards; doctors need support to treat people, not manage hospitals, there should be a clear-cut [distinction] between management and treating.”

According to Conze, doctors should not be running around doing paperwork but concentrate on their core business which is treating the patients. He also said the unhygienic situation needs to be worked on.

“We are going to have a meeting with the Office of the Prime Minister staff and even the prime minster, we should find a way of dealing with this,” he said.

justuslyatuu08@gmail.com

Legal experts have raised questions over Bank of Uganda’s (BoU) failure to prepare an inventory report and other documents stating the assets and liabilities, when it closed Teefe Trust bank on grounds of insolvency.

In an interview with The Observer, Robert Kirunda, a lecturer of commercial law at Makerere University, said the central bank, as the institution which assures financial stability in the economy, must be cautious especially when it assumes the role of a liquidator.

A liquidator is empowered by law to act on behalf of an insolvent company to sell its assets before its winding-up in order to generate money to pay off creditors.

“The law of insolvency [which covers rules and principles that provide relief to a debtor who lacks the means to pay creditors] presumes a liquidator to act in a particular manner. And at all material times, BoU, on assumption of that role, is expected to act within that framework,” Kirunda said.

In November last year, when the parliamentary committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) started investigations into seven defunct banks, it instructed Auditor General John Muwanga to specifically audit the status of the banks at closure, cost of liquidation, status of assets and liabilities, non-performing assets, non-recoverable assets and liquidators.

Between the months of January and April this year, Muwanga tried to gain access to the necessary documentation pertaining to the closure of Teefe Trust bank but in vain.

So, when he reported to parliament last month, Muwanga said he was not availed with the inventory report, loan schedules, customer deposit schedules and statements of affairs of Teefe Trust bank to enable him fulfil the specific audit objectives.

“Due to this limitation, I could not assess the status of the assets and liabilities of Teefe Trust bank from closure to-date,” Muwanga’s report observes.

“BoU management explained that it will continue to search in the archives to get all the information.”

At the beginning of this month, Cosase convened to consider the audit queries raised against BoU, including its failure to grant the AG access to the required information. To this effect, Cosase chairperson Abdu Katuntu wrote to BoU governor Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile asking for the said documents.

In its first written response, central bank argued that; “Teefe Trust bank was closed in February 1993 under the provisions of the Banking Act of 1969 which did not contain substantive provisions on reports that the liquidator (a person legally empowered to act on behalf of a company to sell the company’s assets prior to the company’s winding-up in order to generate cash to pay off debts) was required to compile.”

However, on November 1, when the committee was not convinced by this response, Mutebile’s people asked for more time to find the documents. Sources on the committee say that BoU later supplied a pile of documents to the committee, which the MPs found wanting in content.

Cosase insists

On November 12, when the committee had a second interaction with BoU, they repeated their demand for the relevant information. Indeed, when Katuntu and other members of the committee raised concerns about the irrelevance of the parliament process without the availability of the requisite documents, BoU executive director in charge of bank supervision Twinemanzi Tumubweine was compelled to pass on the question to the fellow director in charge of commercial banking, Benedict Sekabira. Sekabira was a junior staff at BoU when Teefe was closed.

At first, Sekabira said  the inventory report was provided as a summary. His submission depended on a letter written by former BoU employee, Edward Kagimu Mugwanya on March, 13, 2001 to the then minister of finance, which was capturing the financial position of Teefe. But Cosase insisted that what Sekabira was providing was different from what they required. He eventually conceded that BoU never prepared an inventory list before closing Teefe.

At that point, Dr Louis Kasekende, the BoU deputy governor, told Cosase that when Teefe was closed, there was no legal requirement to maintain an inventory list.

“So, we do not have an inventory. We have provided information relating to the financial institution of Teefe; the assets and liabilities,” Kasekende reportedly told the committee.

Legal status

Teefe was closed under the repealed Banking Act of 1969. Under section 14 of this repealed law, every bank was required to exhibit throughout the year, in a conspicuous position in every office and branch in Uganda, a copy of its last audited balance-sheet (showing assets and liabilities – which are derived from an inventory).

Failure to maintain a balance sheet and other audited books of account would attract a sanction. In an interview, Katuntu took the view that “it is the balance sheet and those other documents including the inventory that guide BoU to determine whether a bank is insolvent or not."

“An inventory is a detailed list of stock [assets]. So, if that was not available what was the basis of declaring Teefe bank to be insolvent? Maybe, we need to ask more questions that will require us to summon the former officials who were at the centre of these events,” Katuntu told The Observer.

Even then, Katuntu argues that if the inventory was not available during the determination of the insolvency of Teefe bank, acting as a liquidator, BoU should have prepared an inventory.

“When you take over an institution, you take stock of its assets and liabilities… Under the applicable common law then, there was a duty on the part of BoU to act prudently and in good faith. Prudence and acting in good faith demand that you make an inventory when you take stock of an institution because it is on the basis of the same that we can determine whether you acted in good faith,” Katuntu said.

Bigger picture

When Cosase resumed on Thursday and Friday last week, the committee learnt that BoU had actually closed Teefe under the Financial Institutions Statute of 1993. Section 31(3) provides that the central bank shall, as soon as possible after taking possession of a financial institution, make an inventory of the assets of the financial institution and shall transmit a copy of it to the minister.

In light of this revelation, BoU gave another response in regard to Teefe’s inventory. Parliament will decide whether indeed, this is the much-sought-after inventory. Indeed, when the committee and Mutebile learnt for the first time that BoU has been holding 21 certificates of title as the residual assets accruing from the liquidation of Teefe bank, everyone’s curiosity was aroused even more.

“It is against the establishment of that motive that we will say that they acted in good or bad faith,” Katuntu told The Observer.

To establish this motive, the committee has requested BoU to provide the two annual supervisory reports on Teefe bank prior to seizure by BoU and the documents upon which BoU determined the insolvency of Teefe bank. On studying these documents, the committee hopes to get a clearer picture of things and thereafter apportion responsibilities.

Next week, we examine what we know so far about the investigations into the closure of six other banks: International Credit Bank Limited, Greenland bank, Cooperative bank, National Bank of Commerce, Global Trust bank and Crane bank.

skakaire@observer.ug

Minister of Finance Matia Kasaija has come under increasing pressure to name the public officials whom he says are hiding billions of shillings stolen from public coffers in their homes.

A week ago Kasaija told an accountants’ meeting in Kampala that he knew of people who had “stolen [in government] and even in their own private companies. Somebody was telling me people keep billions of shillings in their houses; what if thieves break in the house or if it catches fire?”

A senior State House official last evening accused the minister of abetting the theft of taxpayers’ money when he withholds such key information about individuals who are looting from Ugandans.

James Tweheyo, head of a new Anti-corruption unit appointed by President Museveni in July to work under State House, told The Observer that he was “not ashamed to say the minister is condoning corruption if he cannot name” the officials he says are stealing money.

“It is not enough to say I know and then keep the information to himself…,” Tweheyo said. “It is not fair. He should better come out and tell us if he knows so that they [corrupt officials] can be prosecuted.”

Tweheyo also said: “First of all, let him withhold the signatures or block the chain [for the money going to corrupt ministries or officials]. We shall reach him to see if he can be supportive."

Hours before State House had weighed in on the matter, anti-graft activists were already baying for Kasaija’s blood, saying he should resign if he cannot name public officials. Anti-corruption warrior and head of the Anti-Corruption Coalition of Uganda, Cissy Kagaba told The Observer on Tuesday that it was shameful to see a senior minister lamenting almost helplessly about a vice which is eating up the country.

“It is an embarrassment and the best thing to do is to resign. What this means is that the corrupt are high up there. I mean if he can’t name them, then it means they are not ordinary people like you and me. They are high up there.”

This is not the first time Kasaija has said he knows the corrupt officials or ministries. In May, while appearing before the Justice Catherine Bamugemerire-led commission of inquiry into land matters, Kasaija said a lot of government money is finding its way into the wrong hands illegally.

“There are some ministries where if I am signing off their money, I sign when my hands are shaking because I don’t know whether the money will reach where it is supposed to be,” Kasaija said, sending commissioners into a bout of laughter.

When he was asked to name the thieving ministries, Kasaija declined to name any publicly but promised to expose them in camera. The minister further said that despite his efforts to plug the holes, money continues to leak out.

To-date, Kasaija is not known to have revealed the identities of colleagues in government he believes are robbing from the nation. Earlier in February, Kasaija had said during a high-level meeting in Entebbe that he was “amazed by people wanting to get rich overnight, others wanting to take things by force.” 

He said systems allow stealing money because there is a weakness somewhere. To Kagaba, this admission shows that the corrupt were probably more highly placed than Kasaija within government, probably the reason the minister was finding it hard to name them.

It also showed, she said, that this whole “talk of fighting corruption is a delusion, hoodwinking Ugandans.”

Tweheyo’s State House unit was formed after President Museveni expressed frustration at the way the Inspectorate of Government was handling corruption cases. Museveni said during the state-of-the-nation address in June that he thought the IGG was not doing enough to end corruption.

The president has repeatedly made declarations of zero tolerance to corruption a part of his election manifestos. However, despite such public rhetoric, graft continues to fester in a government he has led for three decades.

The IGG, Irene Mulyagonja, responded immediately telling Daily Monitor in June that the corrupt and powerful ‘big fish’ were hiding behind Museveni to frustrate her investigations.

“I still have a lot to do in fighting corruption. There are people who present the front that we are not competent enough to investigate them. Maybe they think my officers are too junior to investigate them…,” Mulyagonja said.

An official in the IGG’s office told The Observer yesterday that in the instance of Kasaija’s remarks, they always encourage these officials to bring the information forward. This official could not, however, say whether Kasaija had shared with the inspectorate what he knows.

Repeated calls to Kasaija went unanswered as this newspaper sought to know whether he has handed his information to investigating agencies. The corrupt are known, at least going by public outbursts of senior officials in government.

Richard Todwong, the vice chair of the ruling NRM party, said this year that people in his party were stealing so much “Ugandans were disgusted”.

Former regime insider and one-time minister for the presidency, Dr Martin Aliker, writes in his recent book, The Bell is Ringing, that while negotiating the sale of Sheraton Kampala hotel with an Ethiopian investor during the 1990s privatisation hysteria, a senior government official in Kampala placed a gun on the negotiating table, and asked the investor to pay them a bribe of $3 million. Museveni was told of the incident and the officials. He was annoyed, Aliker writes, but he did not act because they were his friends.

In September, Museveni gave out a toll-free number and that of Major Edith Nakalema, a State House aide, through which he said the public can report directly those involved in corruption. But one of the numbers which had been in use at Uganda Investment Authority had spent a year without receiving any complaint.

Corruption is a serious problem for Uganda, with the country scoring 26 on the Transparency International 2018 index. Zero is the most corrupt while 100 is the cleanest. This places Uganda among the most corrupt countries in world. The country ranks 151st out of 180 countries ranked by the organisation.

Transparency International said the key ingredient that the top-performing African countries have in common is the political leadership that is consistently committed to anti-corruption -- they go an extra mile to ensure implementation of anti-graft measures.

Kasaija himself admitted before Bamugemerire commission: “This problem [corruption] is a problem that touches all of us. These people who want to be rich quickly by looting the state in broad daylight must be dealt with quickly. If we don’t, it will become ugly.”

At a high level, corruption is a patronage tool, according to analysts, and the most powerful corrupt individuals might walk scot-free because of support they offer a standing government.

Widespread corruption is one of the major causes of poor delivery of public services across sectors, with education, health services, local government, infrastructure projects and public procurement particularly hit.

amwesigwa@observer.ug

The Commercial court has pushed to next year the hearing of pending applications in the case between Bank of Uganda (BOU) and city property mogul Sudhir Ruparelia over sale of Crane bank to Dfcu bank.

The head of the Commercial court, Justice David Wangutusi deferred the hearing of three applications to January 21, 2019 because Bank of Uganda informed court that they are currently appearing before the parliamentary committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) to answer queries raised in auditor general's report on closed banks. 

Cosase is currently probing Bank of Uganda officials over irregularities in closure of seven commercial banks. The banks were closed between 1993 and 2016. The banks are; Teefe Trust bank (1993), International Credit bank (1998), Greenland bank (1999), Co-operative bank (1999), National Bank of Commerce (2012), Global Trust bank (2014) and the sale of Crane bank to Dfcu (2016) at Shs 200 billion. 

The court had set today for hearing of three pending applications. They include Bank of Uganda's two applications in which it is seeking to amend its pleadings and that in which the central bank wants to be allowed extension of time to file its defence to counter the lawsuit filed against it by Ruparelia.

The third application which was supposed to be heard was filed by Ruparelia, demanding dismissal of Bank of Uganda pleadings. The central bank sued Ruparelia and his Meera Investments Company mid last year, for allegedly fleecing Crane bank of Shs 397 billion in fraudulent transactions and transfers.

Crane bank was taken over by the central bank on October 20, 2016 and later sold to Dfcu bank in 2017. Ruparelia has denied the fraud accusations and instead counter-sued the central bank, seeking compensation of about Shs 28 billion in damages for breach of contract between him and BOU. 

Marine police have so far rescued three people and recovered two bodies following the flooding of river Mayanja in Wakiso district. River Mayanja burst its banks around Kawanda-Matugga area along Bombo road on Sunday morning following a heavy downpour.
 
It left a trail of destruction in Gobero, Gombe, Masulita and Kakiri town council. Several people were reported missing following the floods, raising fears that they could have been swept by the turbulent waters.
 
Residents launched a manhunt for the missing persons in vain. A team of Marine police joined the search on Monday evening. Luke Owoyesigyire, the Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson, said police had rescued three people from Masulita sub-county including an 11-year-old, Abdu Kawooya, a boda-boda rider only identified as Paddy and another man who was found unconscious.

"After learning about the tragedy, we started a search for the victims. So far we have been able to rescue three people, all alive. These were found in the areas of Masulita in the swamp, where they were washed by the river," Owoyesigyire said.
 
He says two of the flood victims were taken by their families for treatment. The third flood victim was admitted at Mulago national referral hospital. According to Owoyesigyire, the search for the more flood victims is still ongoing.
 
The deceased were recovered from Kireku in Bweyogerere. Police has only been able to identify one victim as 28-year-old George Lutalo, a resident of Kitoga in Buikwe district believed to be a boda boda rider.
 
His lifeless body was found lying next to a motorcycle registration number UDQ 825R. Matia Lwanga Bwanika, the Wakiso district LCV chairperson, said although what happened was tragic, it conversely gives lessons to the people to vacate buffer zones, wetlands and the banks of river Mayanja. Bwanika notes what happened cannot be called a 'disaster' but a man made problem since they have always told the encroachers to leave such areas in vain.
 
"The good Lord who created wetlands, forests, bushes had his own reasons. We keep talking about environmental protection and the people and some leaders bring in politics. The good thing nature has started revenging against encroachers during our lifetime. May be now when talk about the dangers, people will understand better. We always talk talk about these things but people look at us as crazy, as anti-developmental." said Bwanika. 

Residents admitted being the root cause of the problem. Alex Mulindwa, a resident of Matugga, says the damage would have been minimal if residents hadn't reclaimed wetlands.

"Most off the affected people are those who encroached on the wetlands. They planted yams and built houses in the wetlands. So the water comes with all its full force and washes down everything in its path. But even then, the local authorities also don’t care, they don’t clear clogged trenches." he said.  

Several sub counties including Masulita, Kakiri and Mende are currently cut off because of the flooding. Uganda National Road Authority has dispatched a number of graders to help clear the blocked roads.

Fire has gutted a timber store belonging to businessman Sudhir Ruparelia's Meera Investment.

The store is located along Yusuf Lule road at the former head office of the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence opposite Mulago national referral hospital. The fire that started at around 04.30hrs spread from the pile of timber inside the workshop to the building neighbouring the workshop.

The director Fire and Rescue Services, Joseph Mugisa, police said was informed of the fire and was able to stop the fire from burning the building next to the timber store.

According to Mugisa, the fire is believed to have been caused by an electric short circuit from cables that were near the timber pile. In 2011, Sudhir took over the property after he helped relocate CMI to their newly constructed home at a cost of Shs 20.6 billion. 

Within this month, 11 students of St Bernard's school Maanya in Rakai were killed after fire gutted their dormitory. Also, last week a student of Management, Training and Advisory Centre (MTAC) in Nakawa was murdered and her room set ablaze. 

The deputy speaker Jacob Oulanyah is irked and 'tired' of presiding over a House that has contributed to the ever rising public debt accrued from government’s constant and regular borrowing.

Oulanyah on Monday told the African Organization of Public Accounts Committee (AFROPAC) conference how he was tired of presiding over parliament whose top business is borrowing and loan approvals.

“I am tired of this begging, I am tired of approving loans in every single seating of parliament. Yes, I have said it. I am tired,” Oulanyah said.

Oulanyah’s statements during the opening of a two-day Afropac conference shocked delegates that included African lawmakers on Public Accounts Committees (PAC), auditor generals, accountants general, donors and financial leaders among others at Speke Resort Munyonyo.

Oulanyah wondered why Uganda and some countries in Africa were not learning from other governments’ experiences to correct what has gone wrong so as to avoid opting for public debts.

“I don’t know what is happening in Tanzania or any other place but I know what is happening in Uganda. What is happening in Kenya, South Africa or wherever…can help improve on what is happening in Uganda. There is nothing wrong in Africa that cannot be corrected by what is right in Africa,” Oulanyah said.

Some speakers at the conference who spoke of how the public debts were threatening the sovereignty of borrowing countries provoked Oulanyah’s anguish expressions.

“Do you know how difficult [it is] to do something you don’t like to do, to do something you hate? Do you know how painful it is? Then your words become anyway, anyway. By the time your decisions are based on anyway, the morality of that decision is gone,” Oulanyah said.

“If I say some unkind things, it’s because I intended and I have no apologies. And if it can help, let it do so,” Oulanyah added, also explaining that he presides over the House that regularly borrows and approves loans because if he declined, programmes would not run.

Corruption

Afropac is an annual conference aimed at creating awareness on issues that concern the management of public resources in Sub-Saharan countries like management of the spiralling public debts, curbing illicit financial flows and fighting graft.

However, Oulanyah said meetings such as AFROPAC ought to stop since they are merely time wasting.

“We should stop these meetings because they have not helped. I don’t understand why we meet annually. Even accountability of the monies spent in this conference will have issues,” he said bluntly.

"One thing is clear, unless we make a formal declaration of never again, we are wasting time discussing corruption In fact corruption is here now [at the conference]."

Oulanyah called for change in policies to enhance accountability committees scrutiny of current auditor general’s reports than carrying out what he described as postmortem after a decade.

"You bring an auditor general’s report to parliament for oversight after 10 years. Ten years! By that time, the people who were accounting officers then, are now members of the accountability committees." Oulanyah added. 

Earlier, different speakers called on the public to demand accountability from those responsible for collecting taxes, borrowing on behalf of citizens in addition to making decisions for the country.

“We have continued to observe major challenges in utilisation of borrowed funds such as low absorption capacities, inadequate prior planning for the utilisation of the borrowed funds etc,” assistant auditor general Keto Kayemba said.

Accountant general Lawrence Semakula said in Uganda, the total public debt including publicly guaranteed debt amounted to $10.7b billion as of the end of June 30, 2018 compared to $9.4 billion at the end of June 2016, an increase of 13.8%.

“Although the public debt to GDP ratio is still below the 50 per cent ratio, there is need to manage political and social pressures that may drive borrowing to finance development expending,” Semakula said.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Sub-Saharan Africa continues to experience a distress in public debts. By the end of 2017, the average public debt in Africa was at 57%.

In May this year, IMF indicated that Sub-Saharan African nations are at growing risk of debt distress because of heavy borrowing and gaping deficits, despite an overall uptick in economic growth.

namuloki16@gmail.com

Police’s Flying Squad Unit on Wednesday, October 17, re-arrested suspected serial killer Baker Walusimbi who had been on remand fort 12 years moments after High court in Kampala released him on bail.

Lillian Nantongo, a resident of Salaama parish, one of the alleged Walusimbi victims, tells her story. Walusimbi has been represented by prominent city lawyer, McDusman Kabega. He was arrested on January 21, 2006. Four years earlier, he had been accused of defilement in 2002.

Last Saturday, Nantongo sat down with The Observer to relive the torment she says she underwent at the hands of Walusimbi on December 18, 2005.

“You are now reminding me of a man I had erased out of my mind because he has been out of circulation. I vividly recall all I went through the day he kidnapped me and two other ladies,” Nantongo, now 34 years old, said.

Nantongo was a first-year evening student at Kyambogo University. That day, she left campus at around 9.30pm and boarded a taxi which dropped her off at Nakawa stage. She joined two other ladies; one of whom was a fellow student at Kyambogo as they waited for a taxi to take them to Kampala city
centre.

“As the three of us were waiting for a taxi, there came, I think a Toyota Corona  [vehicle] whose occupant offered us a lift. He drove us to town and followed Nasser road heading for Entebbe road. He was asking each one of our destinations and what we were doing. I told him I was heading to Salaama and one lady said she was going to Nateete." Nantongo said. 

Upon reaching Nasser road, she narrates that Walusimbi asked them whether they had ever heard of a notorious robber and rapist called Baker Walusimbi. They all said no, moments later he introduced himself as the one, sending chills down their spines.

“I was seated in the co-driver’s seat and it was heavily raining. We reached Shoprite [supermarket] and the Nateete girl told him she wanted to disembark, but Walusimbi did not stop and instead drove on towards Ggaba road,” Nantongo recalls.

When they reached the Mukwano-Ggaba road junction traffic lights, Walusimbi warned that each of them would get a punishment from him for boarding a strangers’ vehicles.

“I kept quiet as the other two women were screaming on top of their voices which forced Walusimbi to point a pistol and a knife at them and they all shut up. I opened one of my bags and got a cloth and started helping him clean the windscreens because the rain was heavy and he was driving at a slow speed”.

She adds that when they reached Kabalagala, they pleaded with Walusimbi to have mercy on them and drop them off but he refused.

The robbery

When they reached Bbunga, Walusimbi stopped and ordered one lady to remove whatever she had, including the shoes and mobile phone and get out of the vehicle, to which she obliged while trembling.

“After the Cape junction, Walusimbi branched off the main road and took the murram road, which was slippery, forcing him to re-join the main road. As it was still raining, we reached a junction and he asked me whether I knew the place. I said I didn’t and he told me this is Mr Gordon Wavamunno’s residence,” she says.

“He drove off and stopped at Mr Sudhir’s place which was undeveloped then and ordered me to leave whatever I had and I removed everything, including my new Nokia phone, which I had just bought at Shs 200,000 three days before. I removed my shoes, rings and earrings, the two bags I had with their contents, including my money for transport and my spectacles and he stabbed my right arm before ordering me to get out and walk on without looking behind,” she added.

Quaking, Nantongo said she moved out in the rain and stopped in a puddle beside the road and heard a gunshot, which was followed with Walusimbi’s vehicle speeding off at a terrific speed.

“This was around midnight and thanking my ancestors without remembering God, I ran towards Salaama road and when I reached a pitch opposite a church, I met people who had heard the gunshot and asked why I was running. I explained and one boda boda cyclist offered to take me to my residence, which was on Badongo road and my late mother Nalumansi gave him Shs 5,000 and thanked him for saving my life.

“I don’t know what happened to the third girl who I left in the vehicle.”

Walusimbi arrested

She says three days later, their neighbour, one Jjuuko told her Walusimbi had been arrested and was detained at VCCU in Kireka.

“Jjuuko took me there and I managed to recognise Walusimbi, who also said he still recognised me. He told the security officials that he remembers my Nokia phone and other items but that they were taken by his colleague in Masaka. He also told them that he had returned my spectacles and my school bag to me. I went back home and gave up everything,” she goes on.

In April 2017, court in Kampala gave the state 30 days to trace the assessors in the murder case who had gone missing for the case to be concluded. Failing this, Judge Yasin Nyanzi vowed to release Walusimbi on bail.

Walusimbi stands accused of killing at least three women, defiling and robbing many more female victims of mobile phones and other items in 2005. Indeed, he was recently granted a Shs 20 million non-cash bail last week. His sureties were each bonded at Shs 50 million not cash.

In his ruling, judge Nyanzi noted that continuing to keep Walusimbi on remand after 12 years was a violation of his rights because he was denied a speedy trial.

“My judicial mind tells me that the period I gave the state; 30 days in April 2017 to find the whereabouts of the two missing assessors was more than enough. I therefore proceed to grant bail,” Nyanzi said.

Almost laying the ground for a re-arrest, Nyanzi also warned that his giving bail does not bar the state from re-arresting him, and charging him afresh and so on, and so forth. Walusimbi was arrested on January 21, 2006, following a joint operation by the police’s Violent Crime Crack Unit.

Walusimbi was arrested following a manhunt in December 2005. At the time two bodies of females, who had first been raped and their throats slit in a similar manner, were found around Kampala.

Walusimbi was charged with four counts of robbery and three counts of murder of Moreen Nalubule who was a senior six student of Makerere college school; Jacqueline Najjombwe and Maria Katasi, both residents of Najjanankumbi on Entebbe road.

He confessed to his crimes during police interrogation. But when he was later put on trial he recanted his admission. Walusimbi's trial stalled for over ten years because the court assessors assigned to follow his trial on behalf of the public disappeared.

High court registrar in charge of criminal matters Mary Ikit processed Walusimbi for bail. But as soon he set foot outside the court gate, security operatives pounced on him and re-arrested him.

lubwamasiraje@gmail.com