State House Entebbe. A presidential assistant and four clerical staff in the Office of the President are being held for questioning as part of a wider investigation into alleged corruption, among others, at State House and the Office of the President. PHOTO/FILE
A presidential assistant and four clerical staff in the Office of the President are being held for questioning as part of a wider investigation into alleged corruption at State House and the Office of the President.
Monitor could not readily identify the clerical staff who are being held for questioning, but the presidential assistant in question has been identified as Mr Michael Christopher Ayeranga, who is in charge of mobilisation in Bunyoro Sub-region.
Mr Faruk Kirunda, President Museveni’s deputy press secretary, confirmed the arrest this week, but declined to give further details.
“Mr Ayeranga is being held for questioning, but I do not have full details about what he is being accused of. You will have to contact the police for those details,” Mr Kirunda said during a telephone interview.
Mr Kituuma Rusoke, the spokesperson of the Uganda Police Force, had by press time not gotten back to the Monitor with details around the cause of the arrest.
However, sources close to the presidency revealed that the five were arrested in connection with an investigation into leakage of official documents, forgery of the presidential signature and extortion that was initiated at the behest of President Museveni.
Sources within the leadership of the parliamentary caucus of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) revealed that the President told its members during a meeting held at State House on October 4 that he was going to crack down hard on corruption among employees of both State House and the presidency.
“I must fight corruption in my office. I am even arresting my own people inside here,” Mr Museveni is said to have told members of the caucus.
It is now emerging that by the time the President was addressing the caucus, the five had already been taken into custody.
Sources close to the Presidency told Monitor that the five accused persons were picked up from different locations in Kampala and Entebbe, in an operation that commenced last week on Thursday with the arrest of the clerical staff and ended on Friday with the arrest of Mr Ayeranga.
Leakage, extortion
Sources privy to the investigation revealed it was precipitated by the appearance on social media of a letter in which the President appointed Mr Ayeranga a presidential assistant in charge of Bunyoro Sub-region.
Mr Museveni appointed Mr Ayeranga on September 23, three days after he toured Youth minister Balaam Barugahare’s hotel and addressed a youth empowerment rally in Masindi on September 20.
The appointment was prompted by the presentation by Minister Barugahare of a memorandum in which National Resistance Movement (NRM) leaders from the sub-region demanded jobs for long-serving NRM cadres, including the former minister for Bunyoro Affairs, Mr Ernest Kizza, as well as two former legislators, Mr Edgar Kaahwa Amooti and Karuhanga Amooti.
“The moment you share President Museveni’s letter, it causes people to ask who shared the letter. When the clerical staff were questioned it was established that they had given the letter to him and that it was his own copy that had been leaked,” the source revealed.
According to our sources by the time the questions about the leaked letter came up, complaints that some of the arrested people had been extorting money from people who sought to meet the President had been pending.
It is not clear whether Mr Ayeranga has anything to do with those allegations, but it is not the first time allegations that people who seek to meet or communicate with the President are asked to pay money in order to do so have cropped up.
In April last year, Dr Kennth Omona, who was the President’s principal private secretary, issued a statement in which he emphasised that no one was required to pay money in order to meet the President.
The statement on X, formerly Twitter, was in response to an earlier post on the same platform, in which Mr Simon Kaggwa Njala sought to know who the official brokers of such meetings were.
“Simon @SimonKaggwaNjal, We have always said, you don’t need money or a broker to come to @StateHouseUg, all you need is the reason to do so, weighed against the President’s availability & priority. We don’t have a member of staff called @DaudiKabanda,” Dr Omona posted.
The clarification came up amid claims by a former candidate in the Busiro South parliamentary race that one legislator had defrauded him of Shs50 million in the name of helping him to meet the President.
Lands minister Judith Nabakooba
Forgeries
According to our sources, the five accused persons are also being questioned in regard to a number of documents that were purportedly sent out by the President.
Lately heads of Cabinet as well as ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) have been the recipients of numerous blue letters in which the President has purportedly issued directives on a wide range of issues.
These include, among others, the award of contracts for construction projects such as roads and jobs to certain individuals.
The instructions suggest that the President has been issuing the directives in disregard of procurement and recruitment guidelines.
In one case, the Ministry of Works and Transport was reportedly directed to award a Shs124 billion contract for the construction of a ministerial complex in Bwebajja to a foreign firm.
In another case, a letter dated February 27, 2023, and addressed to then Inspector General of Police Martin Okoth Ochora, reportedly directed the extension for another five years of the telecommunication intelligent monitoring and data monitoring systems.
Besides questions about the veracity of signature, there were issues around why the President would have chosen to write to the Inspector General of Police and not the Minister of Internal Affairs who oversees the Police, or the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC).
Another query of the letter was how the President purportedly wrote the name of Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who was purportedly copied in. The name is written as “Kaine-rugaba.” Gen Muhoozi’s names on all official documents are written as “Muhoozi Kainerugaba”. It is inconceivable that Mr Museveni would hyphenate his son’s name, our source offered.
Another questionable letter was one in which the President purportedly directed the chairperson of the Public Service Commission to “assess the suitability” of an individual for appointment to the post of secretary of the Land Commission.
Mr Ayeranga’s arrest has in the meantime sparked angry reactions in Bunyoro Sub-region where a group calling itself “Set Ayeranga Free” is demanding for his immediate release.
The group led by Mr Matia Kajura Amooti called a press conference at Kolping Hotel in Hoima this past week. During the media briefing, they accused security operatives of holding him incommunicado. Mr Ayeranga has reportedly been denied access to legal representation and his family.
Monitor, however, understands that Mr Ayeranga was on Tuesday taken to his home in Hoima where he was allowed access to his home. The home was also searched for documents and firearms. A firearm and six rounds of ammunition were recovered.
Mr Ayeranga’s supporters regardless accuse security operatives of detaining him without producing him before a competent court of law beyond the 48 hours allowed by the Constitution.
“We stand united as the people of Bunyoro, and we will not tolerate the violation of the rights of any of our people. We demand that the government of Uganda and all relevant authorities take immediate action to correct this grave injustice,” the press statement that they issued reads in part.
The group also made a direct appeal to Minister Barugahare to intervene. Mr Barugahare told Monitor that he was going to take up the matter with President Museveni.
“If Mr Ayeranga has not been released by Monday, I will definitely take up the matter with President Museveni after the Cabinet meeting,” Mr Barugahare told this newspaper.
