Charge other iron sheets suspects too

Yesterday, the Anti-Corruption Court remanded the Minister for Karamoja Affairs Mary Gorreti Kitutu Kimono to Luzira Prison for causing loss of public property, corruption, and conspiracy to defraud the government.

The office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), had in a tweet on Wednesday night, announced how they had already sanctioned the aforementioned charges against her, awaiting court appearance. The quick move by the DPP is a welcome one.

This is because there has been a public outcry about prosecutors going after small fish and leaving the big fish to swim.

Minister Kitutu is not alone in this mess despite being the face of it. Last month, the office of the Inspector General of Government (IGG) released a list of at least 22 ministers, 31 MPs and 13 Chief Administrative Officers (CAOs) whom it is investigating in connection with the Karamoja iron sheets scandal.

Majority of the implicated ministers have since come out to play clean of how they never had a hand in the iron sheets diversion and that they just saw the said roofing material delivered to their homes/ constituencies.

Well, that might be the case, but if you didn’t know the history of the iron sheets delivered to your respective homes/ constituencies, why didn’t you reject them by having them sent back?

The fact that some of the ministers and legislators fully embraced the same iron sheets and even used them on projects like roofing of their animal sheds translates into part-taking in the corruption cobweb.

So our prayer is that minister Kitutu should not be the sacrificial lamb in this scandal but let’s have other top government officials charged too.

This is the only way that we can be seen fighting corruption that has since become the cancer in this country and eaten every sector.

Uganda loses a whopping Shs1 trillion shillings annually to corruption. This is really a huge figure, which if channelled into infrastructural development like the badly off roads, would really make a big difference in the citizens’ lives.

If we have decided to fight the corruption monster, let’s tackle it head on by casting the net farther rather than resorting to what may refer to as selective prosecution.

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