Kabarole officials charged over graft

Feb 22, 2010

THE chief administrative officer (CAO) of Mpigi district, Solomon Kalibwanyi, and four Kabarole district officials have been remanded to Katojo Prison in Fort Portal on allegations of embezzlement of funds and abuse of office.

By Hope Mafaranga
in Fort Portal


THE chief administrative officer (CAO) of Mpigi district, Solomon Kalibwanyi, and four Kabarole district officials have been remanded to Katojo Prison in Fort Portal on allegations of embezzlement of funds and abuse of office.

Kalibwanyi served as CAO in Kabarole district until June last year when he was transferred to Mpigi.

The four others are the chief financial officer, Robert Nkojo, the water engineer, Pius Katuramu, and assistant CAOs Joseph Rwabukuku and Steven Rubaihayo.

They appeared before Fort Portal chief magistrate Boniface Wamala yesterday where they were charged.

Rogers Kinobe of the Inspector General of Government’s office told the court that between 2000 and 2002, Rwabukuku approved the payment of sh38m of the Poverty Alleviation Fund to staff as a motivation allowance, irrespective of whether they carried out any monitoring and evaluation exercises.

“This act was prejudicial to the interests of the local government and abuse of authority,” he said.

The court also heard that Kalibwanyi, Katuramu and Nkojo stole property of the Kabarole local government worth sh27m.

“By the virtue of your offices, you used your positions to withdraw the money,” Kinobe said.

Kalibwanyi, Rubaihayo and Edward Mugarura, a court bailiff, are accused of stealing sh14m which was realised from the sale of obsolete assets belonging to Kabarole district between December 2008 and January 2009.
The accused denied the charges and were remanded until March 11 when their case comes up for mention.

Magistrate Wamala said his court did not have jurisdiction to try the accused and advised them to apply for bail from the Anti-Corruption Court in Kampala.
The officials were arrested over the weekend by the Police on the orders of the IGG.

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