How the big, mighty went tumbling down

They were once way up the ladder.  However, due to financial dealings in their offices that did not go quite right, they came tumbling down. Carol Natukunda brings you the stories of how these once mighty people have been reduced to ordinary Ugandans

For starters, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), last year cleared her of all wrong doing. But everyone who knew Kabakumba before this saga will agree that it absolutely tainted her image.

For a princess who had risen through the ranks to become a senior cabinet minister, it was hard to fathom theft being linked to her. 

In 2011, the Police recovered a stolen UBC transmitter from her radio station, Kings Broadcasting Services in Masindi district. Consequently, the Bujenje County MP was accused of using the transmitter and other broadcasting equipment belonging to UBC without paying for them.

This allegedly happened while she was still information and national guidance minister. In December 2011, following intense pressure from both the Cabinet and NRM to vacate her seat, the Princess resigned.

Teddy Seezi Cheeye -Global Fund saga:

The judge described Cheeye as a beast, a rogue and a mass murderer, for embezzling sh120m before handing him a 28-year sentence.

Cheeye, the former director for economic monitoring in the Internal Security Organisation, was one of the people convicted for embezzling the Global Fund money.

It was hard to believe that a sane person could steal millions of money meant for patients of tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS. Justice James Ogoola’s probe, implicated many NGOs and individuals, including Cheeye.

He was convicted in April 2009. Cheeye was the sole director and signatory of his NGO (Uganda Centre for Accountability) and his wife was his secretary. He was the sole operator of the company’s bank account, where sh120m was wired by telegraphic transfer from the Global Fund.

He was found to have withdrawn sh96.6m on March 15, 2005 using three cheques, two of sh20m each and one of sh56.6m. Justice J.B. Katutsi stated: “The accused set up a company, which to his knowledge was a mere sham or simulacrum, only intended to feather his own nest with ill-gotten money. He used a method not quite different from mere expedients by which rogues of his ilk seem to think they can get away from the real substance of the transaction.”

“…he is no better than a mass murderer, which in truth he is! Think of hundreds of thousands of the victims of HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria who include innocent children from whom he robbed the little opportunity to receive a bit of comfort,” Katutsi responded to pleas for leniency from Cheeye’s lawyer, Peter Kabatsi.

  Cheeye rose to prominence in the early 1990s as editor of the defunct Uganda Confidential, a newsletter that specialised in exposing financial scandals in government. Cheeye was asked to refund sh110m of the sh120m advanced to his organisation

David Chandi Jamwa:

Every salaried worker knows how painful it is to have even a slight cent deducted from your monthly paycheque. So when it emerged in January 2008 that there was a scam in the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), workers were understandably enraged. NSSF had bought 414 acres of land in Temangalo, Wakiso district, which was hitherto owned by city businessman Amos Nzeyi and Arma Ltd, a company linked to the then security minister Amama Mbabazi. Each acre was reportedly bought at sh24m. There were allegations that NSSF did not advertise for the purchase of land as required by the PPDA Act. The sh11b-deal sparked a controversy when Mbabazi and finance minister Ezra Suruma, who approved the deal, were accused of influence-peddling and conflict of interest. The ministers denied any wrong-doing.

However, after several probes, Jamwa and his deputy Mondo Kagonyera were suspended. But it turned out that Temangalo was just one of the many controversial deals under Jamwa. He was also accused of spending workers’ money lavishly, including on gambling in American casinos.  According to a KPMG report, Jamwa arbitrarily sold off several NSSF bonds before their maturity dates, which led to the loss of huge sums of money. NSSF lost over sh8b in just two days when Jamwa sold off government bonds to Crane Bank before their maturity date. In addition, the report said Jamwa instructed the bank to sell two-year bonds worth sh19b and sh9.7b on November 2, 2007, some 27 days before the date of maturity. As a result, the report added, NSSF lost the maturity value, plus the final interest payment, totalling to sh1.6b. A day later, 10 NSSF three-year bonds worth sh39b were also sold.

The probe focused on the procurement of an integrated information management system, the purchase of land in Temangalo and the status of Nsimbe Holdings, the misuse of credit cards, investments in fixed deposits and the sale of immature bonds. The auditors found that “a lot was wrong with the management of NSSF,” especially in procurement, salary advances, allowances and loans.

Former VP DR. Specioza Kazibwe,  Microfinance mismanagement:

Sh60b went missing from the Microfinance Support Centre in a record three months. Kazibwe, who was the board chairperson, was subsequently suspended over allegations of abuse of office and mismanagement in the office she assumed in 2008.

The centre, which is key in the implementation of the Prosperity-for-All programme, aims at transforming the rural economy through job creation and increase household incomes.

Geoffrey Kazinda, OPM cash:

Seeing him dressed in a yellow uniform — like any other inmate of Luzira Prison, you would really sympathise with Kazinda.

It is hard to imagine that this was once the elegant chief accountant in the Prime Minister’s Office. Kazinda is currently before court on over 20 counts of embezzlement, false accounting, forgery, conspiracy to commit a felony and causing financial loss amounting to sh316.8m.

Syddda Bbumba and Khiddu Makubuya

Basajja issue:

Last year, the two former ministers quit their Cabinet posts following intense pressure over abuse of office and wrongly approving compensation for city businessman Hassan Basajjabalaba. Earlier, President Yoweri Museveni had told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that Basajjabalaba must refund all excess funds paid to him fraudulently and that ministers Makubuya and Bumba must take responsibility for the loss suffered by the Government in compensation claims. The President stated that the money paid to Basajjabalaba was sh169b and not the sh142b that PAC had in its report. 

As attorney general, Khiddu Makubuya was allegedly requested by the President for legal opinion on the legality of compensations sought by Bassajja’s HABA Group of Companies, but never reverted to him to render the much-needed legal opinion.

For Bbumba, MPs said as finance minister, in whose custody all public funds are placed, “abused her office by acting very swiftly without exercising due diligence and undermining prudential measures instituted by technical staff to verify HABA compensation  claims.” 

Former  VP Prof Gilbert Bukenya  CHOGM scandal:

Court has cleared him of all wrong doing in the CHOGM scam and he has now sued the Government demanding over sh104m in damages. He claims he was maliciously prosecuted by the Inspector General of Government for abuse of office and fraud in the supply of executive vehicles used during the 2007 CHOGM summit in Kampala. 

 Bukenya had been indicted for awarding a sh9.4b contract to Motorcare to supply 204 executive vehicles. He chaired the cabinet CHOGM sub-committee which awarded the tender. On June 16, 2012 the ex-VP was indicted by the court over the charges. In the same year on October 3, he was committed for trial; and spent a week on remand at Luzira Prison. Many pundits say this was largely the reason why the self-proclaimed minister Mahogany, as he is popularly called, was dropped from cabinet. But he could bounce back anytime.