I supplied drugs to over 30 MPs

By Sunday Vision team

For three months Sheila Namatovu (not real names) supplied drugs to over 32 Members of Parliament, businessmen and city celebrities hidden in pizza. The drugs ranged from narcotics, stimulants, depressants (sedatives), hallucinogens and cannabis.

Fresh from serving an eight-month sentence in Luzira after being caught in one of her missions, Sunday Vision met her in Makindye where she currently runs her father’s shop.

In a chilling confession, the 26-year-old says she was recruited by one of Kim Tumwesigye alias Kim Ueno associates who runs his car bond along Entebbe road.

She was introduced to the associate by one of her close friends who said they had work for me. “They told me they pay well and that I would be paid after delivering pizza to customers,” she says.

“They started giving me wrapped items that they said were pizza to deliver. On the first day they gave me eight of them and I successfully delivered them to MP Tony Kipoi’s office. I was paid sh200,000 after delivery.”

It became her routine and she would do three deliveries a week. She says she never met Kim but was dealing through Alex Muyomba who delivered the package to her. It is the same Muyomba who delivered a package to singer Iryn Namubiru which eventually led to her arrest in Japan last month.

It was easy to gain entrance into Parliament because according to her, clients had made arrangements with the guards to let her in.

“Usually in most cases I found it easy to pass through the reception because they had already made arrangements with the sentries at the gate and at the reception so it was easy for me to go through.”

She gave Sunday Vision the names of some of the legislators she delivered her items to and prominent among them is one who recently had issues with his party. Five are from the central, 11 from the east, nine from west and five from the north. Her luck ran out early last year when she was arrested after being trailed.

“I was unlucky this time around and did not know my client because he was new so I got lost in Parliament. I was arrested and taken to Central Police Station. They had packed 50 grammes of amphetamine in the pizza I had and I pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eight months in prison,” she adds.

“I am out now trying to put my life together,” she told Sunday Vision.

Claims of drugs being consumed by MPs is not new. Last year, one of the most outspoken MPs, Cerinah Nebanda, died after allegedly taking drugs. A postmortem report released from the UK showed she had traces of alcohol and cocaine among other drugs in her blood and tissue samples.

Kim: Drug Lord behind  Namubiru’s Japan saga

Kim Tumwesigye, alias Kim Ueno, a Ugandan promoter based in Japan, contracted singer Iryn Namubiru to perform in Japan. As fate would have it, Iryn was arrested and detained after being found with drugs. Our reporter has reliably learnt that Tumwesigye has been dealing in drugs for a long time.

Security sources told Sunday Vision that Tumwesigye is one of the biggest importers and exporters of drugs in and out of the country.

A close friend of Tumwesigye revealed that he uses the cover of brokerage and the car dealership business to execute his trade. He is also the chairman of the National Resistance Movement/Organisation, Japan chapter, a group that is neither registered in Uganda nor Japan. He is a former army officer and was attached to the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, but later quit and went to Japan for private business and is married to a Japanese woman.

“He is wealthy, powerful and well connected,” an officer attached to the Anti-Narcotics department told Sunday Vision.

In fact, he is so well-connected that he enjoys protection from top government officials.

In an interview with Sunday Vision, the Interpol Uganda boss, Asan Kasingye, said they recorded statements from both Kim and Namubiru. “We wanted him to explain his role in the whole racket because he seems to have left his finger prints everywhere,” Kasingye said.

He confirmed reports that Tumwesigye is big fish in the illicit drug business. “Yes, I have heard he is a big name in the industry.”

Kasingye said the Anti-Narcotics unit of the Criminal Intelligence and Investigations Department is now tracing how the drugs came into the country.

Highly placed Police sources say their real fears are that Kim has imported huge quantities of drugs into the country and stashed it in several hideouts in Kampala and that some of the drugs are now being consumed locally.

Namubiru was arrested early last month in Japan after landing at the Narita International Airport where she had gone to perform for the Ugandan community.

“I was given a suitcase together with wrapped portraits to take for him in Japan. I did not know that I was carrying drugs. When I reached Japan, I was given a form to fill in which I was supposed to declare if I was carrying luggage for anyone. After filling in the forms, Japanese immigration officials who checked my luggage pulled me aside and said I was under detention.”

It later emerged that drugs had been stashed in the hollow frames of the portraits and also in a fake bottom created in the suitcase. “The fake bottom in the suitcase had 1.9kg, while the rest was stashed in the frames of the portraits,” Namubiru says.

The drugs were estimated to be worth $2m (about sh5.4b).

A top intelligence source on the case said Kim was part of a large racket of the drug cartel which mainly comprises Nigerians and Pakistani nationals who are using Uganda as a transit country to traffic drugs to other destinations.

The Police is investigating claims that some of its own officers are involved in this racket and have been providing protection and leaking strategic operations to weed out drug dealers.

“This syndicate has infiltrated the law enforcement agencies and even senior Government officials have been drafted to work for the cartel,” the source told Sunday Vision.

The source also says the cartel controls key entry and exit routes in the country.

“They use all sorts of tricks to disguise the drugs at the various ports of entry. They import the drugs and disguise it here, then reship it to another country,” said the source.

Last week, Saturday Vision ran a spotlight story showing how drugs were imported into the country by car dealers. Incidentally, Kim also owns a car bond along Entebbe Road.

Security sources say he is one of those using the car import business to bring in drugs.

Sunday Vision has also learnt that this is not the first deal Kim has transacted using a local musician in the pretext of organising a concert.

Security sources told Sunday Vision that in October last year, Kim allegedly exported a large consignment of drugs concealed in the same manner as the ones found with Iryn.

“He usually hides the drugs behind portraits of the Kabaka and President Museveni or any other big personality. In October, he organised the jubilee celebration in Japan and flew in over five musicians who all carried packages believed to contain drugs,” the source said.

One of the musicians on the entourage confirmed that each of them was given a package that consisted of a suitcase and portraits to deliver to Kim.

A close handler of the promoter says whenever he is exporting drugs, he has a handler at the airport who quickly clears the items for him.

The source added that Kim has contacts in the music industry and has recruited so many musicians in the trade. “Some of them know what they are carrying, while some are ignorant.”

But it is not only musicians that form part of his distribution channel. Kim has recruited students and several job seekers who work for him and are paid handsomely.

At times, he deals with the managers directly. According to a statement he recorded at Interpol, Iryn’s manager, Tadeo Mubiru, says he received a tip of $500 (about sh1.2m) from Kim.

“I was contacted by an agent of Tumwesigye who handed me a package reportedly containing foodstuff, which Namubiru was to deliver to him in Japan. I apologise to Namubiru for what she went through because I withheld vital information that has caused her this trauma,” Mubiru said.

Sunday Vision has also seen SMS communication between Kim and Mubiru in which the latter promises the former good facilitation once Namubiru delivered the packages. “Do not mind, your problems will all be sorted out once Namubiru lands here,” one text message reads.

Following her arrest, the Japan Police raided Kim’s house where they recovered several ripped portraits and suitcases, all believed to be from Uganda and had been used to ferry drugs into the country.

Asked why he had not come out earlier to reveal this information, Mubiru said he feared for his life. “I was warned that if I came out to speak I was going to be harmed,” he says.

Namubiru told Sunday Vision she was being trailed and had received several calls warning her against revealing information to the public.

“After appearing on one of the TV shows, four different people called and warned me to shut up or else ‘you will be shut forever’” the singer said.

Kasingye says as the investigations go on, Namubiru is being treated as a witness.