The State House anti-corruption unit detained the officials when they appeared before the Criminal Investigations Directorate headquarters in Kampala on Monday to respond to various accusations leveled against them.
Kadir Kirungi, the Hoima LC5 Chairperson and Benson Chiche handcuffed after their arrest by detectives.
The Hoima District LC5 Chairperson, Kadir Kirungi and three
members of his executive are behind bars for allegedly hiring out road equipment
to an Indian investor in Kiryandongo district.
The others are Benson Chiche, the Hoima LC5 Vice-Chairperson,
James Mugenyi Mulindambura the Kiganja sub-county LC 5 Councilor and Natural
resources Secretary and Geoffrey Kumakech, the Buseruka sub-county LC5
Councillor and District Finance Secretary.
The State House anti-corruption unit detained the officials
when they appeared before the Criminal Investigations Directorate headquarters
in Kampala on Monday to respond to various accusations levelled against them.
“It is true the LC5 Chairperson together with three
councillors have been arrested and we are investigating them on various offences.
One of them being hiring out district road construction equipment to an Indian
investor in Kiryandongo. There are many other cases we are investigating them
on,” said a source in the statehouse anti-corruption unit.
The source also revealed that the officials
are also accused of forgery on August 28, 2021
with intent to deceive. They allegedly forged the District Executive
committee-DEC minutes and backdated them to June 22, 2021, to cover their
dubious deals.
Last week, the Police and the State House
Anti-Corruption Unit impounded the Road equipment in question from a private
farm owned by an Indian investor in Kigumba town council Kiryandongo district for
alleged misuse. The unit comprises a grader and a Vibro roller machine.
The numbers of the two pieces of equipment had been plucked off. This led to the arrest of Hoima district engineer Ibrahim Luswata,
works supervisor, Vincent Irumba and a mechanic attached to the district Charles
Tibagwa.
The suspects together with other top district officials are alleged to
have connived and hired out the road equipment to the Indian, whose names haven’t
been disclosed. In June 2017, President Museveni commissioned the road
equipment worth more than Shillings 500b that was distributed to 121 districts.
Each district received a full unit consisting of one motor
grader, one wheel loader, one vibro roller, one water bowser and two dump
trucks. Each unit was valued at 2.7 Billion Shillings. The 1,151 pieces of
road equipment were imported from Japan using a loan from the Japanese Bank for
International Cooperation.