By the end of last year, 21 staff at BOU, the Ministry of Finance and the accountant general had been interrogated, and their electronic gadgets including mobile phones and laptops had been confiscated and subjected to examination.
The Accountant General Lawerence Semakula and eight others have been arrested following the disappearance of $17M (UGX60B)
from the Bank of Uganda (BOU).
Money mysteriously disappeared from BOU in September 2024 and ended up in foreign accounts in The United Kingdom (UK) and Asian
countries such as Japan.
Since then, the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID)
in collaboration with Defence Intelligence and Security (DIS) formerly Chieftaincy
of Military Intelligence (CMI) has been interrogating various individuals from
BOU, the Ministry of Finance and the Accountant General.
CID and DIS probe has zeroed in on nine individuals who orchestrated
a hoax payment of a purported contractor and instructed BOU to disburse the
money.
The others arrested are Jennifer Muhurizi, Mubarak Nansamba, Paul Lumala, Mark Kasuku, Judith
Asaba, Deborah Kusiima, Tonny Yawe, and Priscilla Nayebare.
Assistant Commissioner of Police- ACP Kituuma Rusoke,
the Police Spokesperson, confirmed the arrest of nine individuals. It is not
clear what role each of the suspects played in the theft of 60 billion
shillings.
//cue in “I wish to…
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BOU money heist was first
described as a hacker’s handwork which was later disproved by CID’s Information
and Communication Technology (ICT). Once CID discovered that it was not hacking
but a well-orchestrated fraudulent payment, President Yoweri Museveni directed
DIS to join the probe.
By the end of last year, 21 staff
at BOU, the Ministry of Finance and the accountant general had been interrogated, and their
electronic gadgets including mobile phones and laptops had been confiscated and
subjected to examination.
URN through interaction
with various sources discovered that out of the 60 billion shillings, BOU was
able to recover more than half of it through engaging UK banks. However, BOU
was unable to succeed in recovering money that ended in Asian countries.
There is also a probe
clue that the money that is said to have ended in Asian countries was actually
withdrawn and clandestinely returned to Ugandan beneficiaries in cash or items
procured for them. All this information will be proved or disproved by the
evidence that will be tabled in court during the trial of the suspects.
Mr Joseph Kato graduated with a Master's Degree of Art in Journalism & Communication on February 02, 2024 at Makerere University. He holds a Post Graduate Certificate in Journalism and Media Studies which he attained in 2023 at Oslo Metropolitan University in Norway.
Mr Kato holds a Bachelors Degree in Mass Communication from Kampala International University. The Master's Degree studies and a decade of journalism practice have enabled Mr Kato to be one of the reliable researchers in areas of conflict, r