Prime
Ministers disown Kitutu over iron sheets scandal
Karamoja Affairs Minister Goretti Kitutu
What you need to know:
- New details show dozens of lawmakers alongside priests and churches were listed as likely iron sheet beneficiaries, despite taking home nothing.
- Some 3,000 pieces were reportedly offloaded at the home of a minister’s son.
Nearly a dozen more ministers and several Members of Parliament (MPs) named on an iron sheet distribution list signed by Karamoja Affairs Minister Goretti Kitutu have said they never received the roofing materials.
The Internal Affairs Minister, Maj Gen Kahinda Otafiire, the political overseer of police that is co-investigating anomalies in handling of Karamoja relief, said any person claiming he got iron sheets must be “sick in the head”.
“I have never seen the iron sheets, may be someone wanted me to be a comrade-in-crime, but he or she never told me because I have never heard about it [before],” he said by telephone.
The Bush war veteran signaled that police will investigate the authenticity and author of the document on which he is listed under the title “distribution of iron sheets to ministers: list 2”.
Internal Affairs Minister, Maj Gen Kahinda Otafiire. PHOTO/FILE
According to Maj Gen Otafiire, naming him and dozens of other political leaders --- many said they got no iron sheets from either the Karamoja ministry or Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) where it is domiciled --- “establishes the criminal mind” of the mastermind.
In an October 13, 2022 internal memo to the under-secretary, Karamoja Affairs minister Kitutu named 12 senior and junior ministers and 16 MPs from the sub-region including their chair Remigio Achia as beneficiaries of the roofing materials.
Also on the list are 23 legislators from Bugisu sub-region, among them, Mr Nandala Mafabi (Budadiri West) and Opposition Chief Whip John Baptist Nambeshe (Manjiya).
We were unable to reach Mr Nambeshe, but Mr Mafabi dismissed the claims as made-up.
In the 10-page document titled ‘donation of iron sheets under ministry of Karamoja Affairs’, minister Kitutu who on October 15, 2022 signed on each page of the memo and attachments thereto, noted: “This is to forward the lists [of] beneficiaries of donations under the Office of MKA (Minister of Karamoja Affairs) and also to request you to authorise the release of iron sheets - as per the attached list.”
Among those she names are ministers Dr Chris Baryomunsi (Information), Dr Ruth Aceng (Health), Maj Gen Jim Muhwezi (Security), Maj Gen Kahinda Otafiire (Internal Affairs), and Mr Jackson Kafuuzi (Deputy Attorney General). Others are Ms Hellen Asamo (State for Disability), Ms Persis Namuganza (State for Lands) and State Minister for Health (General Duties), Ms Anifa Kawooya.
L-R: Security Minister Jim Muhwezi, Deputy Attorney General Jackson Kafuzi and Budadiri West MP Nathan Mafabi
Karamoja lawmakers
According to some of the lawmakers representing Karamoja constituencies, listing them as designated iron sheets recipients when they have led the assault to unearth the truth, including demanding that Ms Kitutu and junior Agnes Nanduttu resign, was improper.
Mr Phillips Lokwang, the MP representing Napore West in Karenge District, said minister Kitutu only asked him to submit particulars of constituents eligible to get the iron sheets and that each MP from the sub-region would receive 1,500 pieces for distribution to the identified recipients.
“Later the officers from the Office of the Prime Minister told me that the chief administrative officer (the district accounting officer) is the one to sign for the iron sheets,” he said, adding: “I don’t know whether the CAO received [the] iron sheets, but for me I never received any iron sheets.”
In presentation to the Presidential Affairs Committee chaired by Adjumani District Woman MP Jesca Ababiku, which on behalf of the House is inquiring into the reported diversion of iron sheets and food meant for the Karimojong, the legislators from Karamoja said both line ministers were unwelcome to the sub-region.
Ms Ababiku features on minister Kitutu’s list alongside dozens of MPs including Opposition Chief Whip John Baptist Nambeshe (Manjiya) and Mr Nandala Mafabi (Budadiri West).
All the named political leaders, according to the memo, were each to get 200 iron sheets.
Slightly over half-a-dozen of the listed officials that we managed to speak to yesterday said they were unaware that their names had been included as potential iron sheet recipients, yet they neither solicited for nor received the roofing materials.
On President Museveni’s order, police and the public prosecutor joined State House Anti-Corruption Unit (SHAU), which unearthed the anomalies in February, to conduct criminal investigations into the alleged mismanagement of food and non-food items bought with emergency government funding for the most vulnerable in Karamoja.
Members of Ms Kitutu’s family were arrested in her ancestral home – and released – on claims that they were caught selling the pre-painted G28 corrugated iron sheets marked OPM. Weeks later, Parliament Speaker Anita Among, who acknowledged receiving the sheets, bought 500 news ones as replacements.
Bold step
Separately, State Planning Minister Amos Lugoloobi plucked the labelled iron sheets off a shed on his village farm, calling them “evil”, as pressure for accountability mounted for recipients.amid widening investigations.
“I have never received iron sheets and that [claim] is false,” said Ms Ababiku, who is heading parliamentary inquest into the alleged abuse of the relief.
Security Minister Muhwezi yesterday called his listing as a designated beneficiary “rubbish”, adding that “I never got any iron sheets”.
On his part, Deputy Attorney General Kafuuzi said he has never got any iron sheet consignment.
“I am not cheap and I cannot get involved in stupid things, I can afford to buy iron sheets for myself, I don’t need to be offered 200 iron sheets and put fuel of Shs1 million in a car to take them to my village where I could buy them from,” he said.
Ms Hellen Asamo, the state minister for disability, yesterday said the iron sheet saga is under investigation and “let’s wait for the investigation report”.
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“It will bring out whether it [purported allocation of iron sheets to her] is true or false,” she said by telephone.
We were unable to reach the other ministers. Their mobile phone handsets were either switched off or they did not return or reply our calls and messages, respectively.
“I have never taken iron sheets and I am not aware, those people are producingthese lists for the purposes of running away,” said MP Mafabi, “In my life I have never picked anything from any ministry, I have money to buy iron sheets.”
Two priests and two churches were listed as beneficiaries of the iron sheets. Minister Kitutu was not available yesterday, but a source close to her said names of the ministers and lawmakers put together and attached to the October 13, 2022 memo were “a proposal” that was rejected.
“It was a proposal that she (Kitutu) had made and it was changed,” the source said, adding: “Instead of giving the iron sheets to the MPs and ministers, it was decided that the iron sheets be given to chief administrative officers.”
The source, however, did not explain how the minister came to the decision of including names of her colleagues for intended iron sheet allocation without consultation with them or their consent.
A separate hand-written list dated March 24, 2023 shows that some 172 institutions and individuals, among them ministers, legislators, religious and chief administrative officers, received an average of 50-800 pieces each. We could not independently confirm if these consignments were delivered in 2022 as captured in the official records.
The name of the Second Deputy Prime Minister, Gen Moses Ali, features on one of the lists as a designated recipients of iron sheets, but we were unable to reach him to confirm if he took any pieces home.
Emerging details show that a consignment of 3,000 iron sheets moved out of the OPM stores on February 1 was offloaded at the residence of minister Kitutu’s son in Bulindo, Kira Municipality in Wakiso District. He was unavailable to speak on the allegation.
Combo: Health minister and Woman Representative Lira City Jane Ruth Aceng and Napore West MP Phillips Lokwang.
Supplementary budget
The government procured the iron sheets through a supplementary vote for distribution to vulnerable Karimojong and youthful warriors, locally called Karachunas, as a sweetener to them for renouncing armed violence.
OPM received 105,658 pieces between February 1 and August 8, 2022 for Karamoja ministry in three batches; 10,614 from MM Integrated Steel Mills (U) Ltd on day one, a batch of 10,000 G28 pre-painted sand beige Kiboko brand sheets from the same company on April 22, 2022 and a consignment of similar make of 85,044 pieces of iron sheets that M/S Roofing Rolling Mill Ltd delivered on August 8, 2022.
In two separate memos, one by herself dated January 12, 2023 and another by aide Joshua Abaho, Karamoja Affairs minister Kitutu asked for a total 22,200 pieces of iron sheets for recipients in Karamoja but, as government investigations have revealed, the goods ended in her home and in possession of senior government leaders.
The minister has largely been muted on the matter, but issued a written statement in which she apologised to Ugandans and President Museveni, her appointing authority, over her improper judgment that she attributed to lack of good guidance.
President Museveni has publicly said nothing about the scandal, skipping the subject in his special address to Parliament mid this month.
This publication a fortnight ago reported that Mr Museveni had grilled some of the ministers during a Cabinet meeting over the iron sheets saga, and the Executive has agreed to commit one of their sittings to discuss corruption in the country and effectiveness of policies and agencies to combat the vice.
