Fresh details are slowly emerging on the directives issued by Ugandan President Gen Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni firing Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) Managing Director Stanley Ssendegeya and members of the Board of Directors.
While many had thought that Ssendegeya and other top URC Managers as well as members of the Board of Directors would only lose their jobs, hell seems to already be breaking loose at the corporation, with a number of arrests expected to be made on directives of Gen Museveni.
On Friday, State Minister for Transport Fred Byamukama confirmed that on October 03, 2022, Gen Museveni issued a directive dissolving the Board of Directors of URC and dismissing the corporation’s MD Ssendegeya.
These officials and Board Directors will now be investigated, will the view of possible prosecution in courts of law.
Those to be prosecuted include officials who inflated the cost of locomotives in a Shs48bn purchase deal that attracted the curiosity of Gen Museveni who ordered the State House Anti-Corruption Unit (SH-ACU) to investigate the matter and furnish him with a report on whose basis he has made the directives.
It should be remembered that besides SH-ACU, Parliament’s Committee on Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase), whose chairperson is the youthful Nakawa West MP and main opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) spokesperson Joel Ssenyonyi, also carried out an investigation into the theft of URC land and the locomotives purchase scandal.
Ssenyonyi’s Cosase named a number of city businessmen and businesswomen as currently owning the URC land. These powerful, wealthy and well-connected people whose names came up included Patrick Bitature and Janet Kobusingye of Mestil Hotel who even said she needed more money on top of the land she was compensated with. (Read Story Here).
But MPs were left in shock after Mestil Hotel owner Kobusingye revealed that her land documents had been destroyed by fire. (See Details Here).
Gen Museveni wants some tycoons and other wealthy individuals implicated in the theft of Uganda Railways Corporation land arrested, charged and dragged to courts of law for prosecution, relying on the evidence available.
As for Ssendegeya, Uganda Railways Corporation workers seemed to further crucify him when they exposed more rot before Parliament. (Read Story Here).
It is not clear how long the investigations and prosecution will take but Gen Edward Katumba Wamala’s Ministry of Works and Transport has been tasked to ensure that a new Managing Director and other top managers as well as a new Board are hired to take over at URC as soon as possible.
