Museveni locked in intelligence fight

Kayihura’s presidential ambition?

In March this year, President Yoweri Museveni and his handlers received intelligence that the Inspector General of Police, Kale Kayihura whose contract had not been renewed was attempting a radical move; announcing his presidential bid for 2021.  Although, this might appear farfetched, Museveni was told the venue; a hotel in Mbarara, western Uganda, was already booked, and showed him the T-shirts and tear-drop banners Kayihura had allegedly printed.

The intelligence Museveni received said Kayihura feared Museveni was angry with him and could fire and arrest him. The surprise announcement was reportedly Kayihura’s way of protecting himself. Opposition leader Col. Kizza Besigye had used the same ploy in 2001 and recently former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi in 2016. In both cases, Museveni had received similar warning and not acted.

Before this, Museveni had received tonnes of intelligence that Kayihura had presidential ambitions. It was the reason, the intelligence claimed; he had recruited 11 million crime preventers (Kayihura’s figures). These were to be the police chief’s the most effective campaign machine.

This time Museveni reportedly ordered Special Forces Command to standby for deployment at the hotel and ensure no Kayihura event took place. Other covert intelligence organisations like ISO operatives had already deployed at the hotel, sources claim. Then all of a sudden, before SFC soldiers could take positions, they were recalled. The event was a hoax.

Raid on Bank of Uganda?

Then on April 5, at 15:45 hours, President Museveni held another critical meeting at State House Entebbe. In attendance was Bank of Uganda Governor, Tumusiime Mutebile, Inspector General of Government Irene Mulyagonja and ISO’s Bagyenda Kaka.

According to the minutes of the meeting, a copy of which The Independent has seen, President informed the officials that money had been stolen from the central bank.

The alleged theft, he said, happened through two transfers. The first transfer was of US$20million from the GAVI Fund account. The second was of US$18million from the Works in Progress suspense account.

He noted that the transfers happened between January 22 and February 01, 2017 and that both transfers were executed by cyber criminals with the collusion of insiders. The officials heard that there were audio and other evidence to back up the claims, although these were not presented.

Officials also heard that the transfers were channeled through the Cayman Islands to an account held by a company called Pine-Herst Holdings in CIMB Bank in Malaysia, where it is believed that the money was still being held.

After this presentation, the president told the meeting that the details of the transfers would be got from a report by the ISO Director General.

Museveni asked the Governor to investigate the transfers and report back on Friday, 7 April 2017 or two days later.

The governor and his team were given the statement of the account held by Pine-Herst Holdings (CS_0118900784215) at the CIMB Bank in Malaysia, showing an inflow of the alleged amount that was transferred from Bank of Uganda.

At the meeting, Museveni was also in possession of the executive Summary of a report titled “Role of Rogue Elements in Security and Ministry of Finance in Cyber and Economic Fraud“.

The report indicated that government bodies, and financial institutes in Uganda have been plagued by cyber-crime.

It added that individuals with in government had discovered the possibility of manipulating systems using ICT professional hackers to perform fraud.

The author of the report claimed to be a hacker who was willing to work with Museveni to catch the thieves.

The alleged hacker claimed that in the last few months, he had been involved in transfer of US$38 million to a foreign bank in China from the Ministry of Finance Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) on instruction of Muhakanizi.

“This money as per the 14-03-2017 is still at CIMB Bank Malaysia,” he noted in the report to Museveni, “Attached is the statement I retrieved from a hack on Keith Muhakanizi’s laptop on the 16-03-2017.”

The author added that through the same cartel, he met with the Deputy Governor Bank of Uganda, Louis Kasekende, who asked him if there was a possibility of hacking into the central bank’s systems and “incite some transactions”.  As such, he claimed, he was supposed to carry out a second transfer.

The hacker also claimed he was involved in transportation of huge amounts of money around the country for Bob Kabanero and Jim Muhwezi, whom he both met through Muhakanizi.

Apparently, in a bid to get out this situation he was in, the agent reached out to Lt. Ivan Bwende who in turn informed his superior Capt. Steven Chinywe. Capt. Steven Chinywe thought it prudent that Col. Kaka Bagyenda be informed.

And on 17 February 2017 Capt. Chinywe arranged for a meeting with Bagyenda, the report adds.

“It was agreed through the guidance of the DG that I collect as much evidence as I can to help build a case,” the report notes, “So I went back to run errands for Keith Muhakanizi as a way to gather more intel.”

The agent added that when Chinywe realised his skill sets, he introduced him to one Karamagi who is a Data Center Manager of a telecom company and Kwizera a business man in Kampala.

Apparently, the meeting was intended to get him involved in a plan they had had for a while of running a push and pull fraud on a bank but lacked a person with his peculiar skill sets to execute it.

The report indicates that Chinywe made sure that the agent in question could not even talk to Lt. Ivan Bwende because he feared what consequences could occur.

The agent recounts: “Here I was looking for help but now getting deeper and deeper into these activities.  I did not know who to trust. I did not even trust the DG. At this point I reached out to a friend in CMI called Lt. Amon Musinguzi who linked me to the operations manager of post bank Mr. Albert Barekye and we started plotting counter measures for the impending attack.”

The agent added that the first time the attack was supposed to happen, he was ill prepared and asked Barekye to shut down all extremal interphases [sic] on his routers, which he did as an emergency stop gap.

Then he told Captain Chinywe that nothing could be done because the interphases were down and that this occurrence is common in banking organisations. Then the second time, he lied that the system was being maintained so he could not access it.

“Now this last time was so heated I had to leave town so that I clear my mind to find a final solution,” he noted, “I went dark on them and finally reached out to the DG ISO Col. Frank Kaka Bagyenda who brought me in and I was debriefed.”

He noted that during his time with this outfit, he has gathered evidence in form of audio and text plus whatsapp conversations which clearly state; the intent, mode of operation, the people involved and some of the said SIM cards to be used which can be back traced.

Upon debrief, he adds, it was agreed that I join the ISO team, find other hackers and set up a unit to combat this problem. “Who better than a hacker to fight hacking,” the agent claims, “It made clear sense.”