MPs write to UK embassy over missing ship
Jun 04, 2009
MPS have written to the British High Commissioner about the whereabouts and ownership of a Ugandan ship which vanished at the Port of Mombasa.
By Madinah Tebajjukira
MPS have written to the British High Commissioner about the whereabouts and ownership of a Ugandan ship which vanished at the Port of Mombasa.
They are seeking clarification on the ship, whose registration some MPs claim was changed under dubious circumstances.
Quoting correspondence from Uganda’s ambassador to Brussels Katenta Apuuli committee chairperson Reagan Okumu yesterday said clarification from the High Commission would help Uganda to avoid past mistakes and improve governance.
Katenta on Tuesday sent e-mails profiling the ship to the permanent secretary in the ministry of foreign affairs, James Mugume, who has since forwarded the emails to Parliament.
Katenta said the ship under question played a prominent role in the Falklands War between Argentina and Britain in the early 1980s.
The ship was used by the British as a hospital, thus the name Her Majesty Hospital Ship Uganda, Katenta said.
“It is possible that the British government or contractor of the British defence establishment purchased it,†he added.
The Kenyan Ports Authority managing director, James Mulewa, last month told visiting Ugandan MPs, led by Okumu, that the ship disappeared under strange circumstances from the Port of Mombasa. It was then known as MV Uganda.
Transport state minister Simon Ejua said the ship was lost to an unknown company because of debts.
The ship was one of the five vessels owned by Tanzania, Kenya and Zambia under the East African Community and managed by the East African Shipping Line company.
MPS have written to the British High Commissioner about the whereabouts and ownership of a Ugandan ship which vanished at the Port of Mombasa.
They are seeking clarification on the ship, whose registration some MPs claim was changed under dubious circumstances.
Quoting correspondence from Uganda’s ambassador to Brussels Katenta Apuuli committee chairperson Reagan Okumu yesterday said clarification from the High Commission would help Uganda to avoid past mistakes and improve governance.
Katenta on Tuesday sent e-mails profiling the ship to the permanent secretary in the ministry of foreign affairs, James Mugume, who has since forwarded the emails to Parliament.
Katenta said the ship under question played a prominent role in the Falklands War between Argentina and Britain in the early 1980s.
The ship was used by the British as a hospital, thus the name Her Majesty Hospital Ship Uganda, Katenta said.
“It is possible that the British government or contractor of the British defence establishment purchased it,†he added.
The Kenyan Ports Authority managing director, James Mulewa, last month told visiting Ugandan MPs, led by Okumu, that the ship disappeared under strange circumstances from the Port of Mombasa. It was then known as MV Uganda.
Transport state minister Simon Ejua said the ship was lost to an unknown company because of debts.
The ship was one of the five vessels owned by Tanzania, Kenya and Zambia under the East African Community and managed by the East African Shipping Line company.