Political and technical leaders in Rakai District have expressed fear that a top anti-graft ally of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Sarah Kiyimba, could be on the verge of destruction after an alleged mafia reportedly came in what has variously been interpreted as an attempt to create a leeway for evil to thrive in the district unabated.
Sarah Kiyimba has been accused of involvement in corruption in what seems like a well-targeted campaign to malign and destroy her as an individual, according to the district leaders who have worked with her.
In a letter shared online recently, the hitherto spotlessly clean President’s ‘daughter’ is stunningly accused of pocketing billions in illegal dealings with Rakai District Local Government, including a juicy deal to maintain District roads at a mouth-watering daily budget of Shs7m. She is additionally reported to have influenced the laying off of up to 5% of the District workforce and replaced them with her own people besides bringing in her private tractors and rendering those donated by the Central Government redundant.
However, Rakai District Secretary for Works, Umar Ssebalinde, has told The Pearl Times that the claims are ‘simply malicious propaganda,” expressing regret that “negative forces are out to fight an innocent hardworking person like Sarah Kiyimba.”
Ssebalinde, who is also the Local Council Five Vice Chairman, outrightly trashed the accusations as fake and not worth any attention. He notes that Rakai has scored tremendously in the area of road works working within the budgetary constraints, describing claims that a section of the budget is diverted to the RDC as “ridiculous and laughable.”
He also dismissed claims that the roads equipment donated to the district by the Central Government are currently unusable. The Vice Chairman is in charge of dispatching the equipment for duty.
“I can reliably inform you that all of them are in perfect working condition and are currently stationed in Buyamba doing district work,” he said.
His account rhymes with that of the Chief Administrative Officer ( CAO), Beatrice Katushabe, who says all the equipment are in perfect working condition but the district has gone ahead to hire extra equipment to handle the ever increasing workload. This, she says, is done by outsourcing private contractors which is allowed under the law. She also sharply dismisses reports that the RDC has private tractors working in the district, noting that she has not seen or heard of the same.
In defense of the RDC, Rakai District Chairperson Ssekamwa Kaggwa described the attack as outright malice, adding that Kiyimba would be the last person he would believe to be accused of corruption.
“She is out rightly clean. Whoever is pushing this must be having grudges with her as a person. Everybody in the district is pleased with her work. I initially had clashes with her but that has long been settled and I am the first person to bet she is innocent,” Ssekamwa says.
Kiyimba also has an unlikely defender in Sophia Nankabirwa, the Lwanda Sub County Councillor, who denies knowledge of the said private tractors belonging to Kiyimba in Rakai District. “The fact is that the RDC is being accused falsely. I have neither heard nor seen such tractors in Rakai. Whoever is behind the circulation of that information must be knowing the purpose for doing it,” noted Nankabirwa.
The testimonies for the leaders sharply contrasts with online reports to the effect that Kiyimba is a generally disliked leader in Rakai. Ssebalinde has warned that whoever is being used to fight her should desist because it will be Rakai to lose more than the person they think they are targeting. He waxed lyrical of the presidential envoy for marketing Rakai which sphere he says Kiyimba has exceedingly excelled beyond and above most of his predecessors.
“That woman has promoted our district. No one seemed to care about us but because of her, we have penetrated and we can now receive invitations to workshops from as far as South Africa. Whoever wants her down should refrain,” Ssebalinde says.
Kiyimba has been at the centre of a fight against corruption and the vice of land grabbing in Rakai which leaders and ordinary people alike suspect could have made her step on toes of some oppressors and dirty handed people who could be out to revenge.
It is not yet clear whether the IGG’ office has officially received the said petition as our repeated calls were unanswered by the time of filing this statement.
President Yoweri Museveni has recently vowed to crush corrupt officials. At least five MPs have been arrested over corruption in the past two weeks. (See Details Here, There and Over There).
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