Red Cross gets substantive Secretary General

By Chris Kiwawulo                         

The Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS) has finally got a substantive Secretary General.

Reliable sources revealed that the URCS interim board chaired by Stephen Tashobya, who is also the Kajara County Member of Parliament, appointed Robert Kwesiga as the substantive Secretary General.

Kwesiga, who in the early 2000s worked as the URCS Secretary General before he quit, assumed office on March 1, 2015.

Kwesiga replaced Ken Odur who has been the humanitarian agency’s interim Secretary General for one year and three months.

Odur, who was the deputy Secretary General of the Kenya Red Cross Society, was appointed as the interim Secretary General of URCS after the suspension of Michael Nataka.

This was after Police and Uganda Revenue Authority officials found suspected smuggled goods at Nataka’s home in Munyonyo,a city suburb. Nataka has since been dismissed.

Several URCS senior staff and board members were also sacked. URCS board chairman Robert Ssebunya was also replaced by Kajara County Member of Parliament, Stephen Tashobya, who is the interim Central Governing Board chairman.

The board dismissed finance director Sarah Ndegemu and her deputy Geoffrey Wepondi while Richard Amadra, the undersecretary general in charge of institutional development was pardoned after he reportedly pleaded with the board.

According to investigations, the sacked URCS senior staff members were accused of forgery, improper use of the organization’s funds, expenditures without authority, inter-borrowing without authority and flouting procurement procedures.