Forged Museveni letter probed

Apr 28, 2008

The Police are investigating the source of a letter in which President Yoweri Museveni purportedly asked city authorities to levy taxes on bodaboda riders.

By Herbert Ssempogo and Esther Kyabaki

The Police are investigating the source of a letter in which President Yoweri Museveni purportedly asked city authorities to levy taxes on bodaboda riders.

Kampala Extra Police spokesman Simeo Nsubuga said the Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, asked detectives at the CID headquarters in Kibuli to probe the document of February 25, 2008.

The communication on a State House letterhead stated: “After a discussion with the leaders of the newly-founded Bodaboda Riders Association, I am writing to you about the above association, which has promised to organise bodaboda riders so that the Government can realise taxes from them.

“I am sending you their leader, cadre Abel Amanya, from Yellow Brigade, to work with your office and other Government departments to streamline their operations.”

Addressed to city mayor Nasser Sebaggala, the letter was copied to Kayihura, division chairpersons and resident district commissioners.

Nsubuga insisted that the letter was crafted by streetwise fellows, who had forged the President’s signature.

“It is not authentic. I spoke to the President’s principal private secretary, who said the letter was not from State House,” he told journalists at the Central Police Station in Kampala yesterday.

He added that several people had been interrogated over the letter.

The culprits, if arrested, will be charged with uttering a false document and forgery, Nsubuga added.

In the 2006 Presidential campaigns, Museveni stopped bodaboda riders from paying taxes to city authorities.

However, Nsubuga warned that operations against errant motorcyclists would continue.

He cited riding without helmets, permits and third party insurance as the offences they targeted in last week’s operation, in which 239 motorcycles were impounded.

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