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National Coordinator Kamugisha accused of embezzling funds to acquire property
Kampala, Uganda | IAN KATUSIIME | Blaise Kamugisha, the National Coordinator of Crime Preventers has in a short time reportedly bought himself four cars, a house, a farm, a shop in Kikuubo; the business hub of Kampala, and prime plots of land in Entebbe, Mbarara, and Wakiso. And some people are not impressed.
“This is someone who has no job and he has just graduated (January 2019) from university. We have reason to believe he is using SACCO money,” one of them told The Independent.
In fact, members of the crime preventers’ Mwangaza Savings and Credit Cooperative (SACCO) have written to the Ministry of Trade and Cooperatives demanding an audit of Mwangaza.
From several interviews conducted with crime preventers across the country, Kamugisha runs a one man show of both the crime preventers as an outfit and Mwangaza as the SACCO. “When we were going to meet the president, we were told not to ask anything,” one said. Kamugisha has reportedly created a small band of loyalists with whom he works on given projects.
Crime preventers paint a picture of someone who runs the organisation with an iron fist. “We would go to Kampala to collect our savings and we would just find different people at the secretariat,” a source said. In addition, it is alleged he would fire treasurers and other managers of the SACCO in case they disagreed him with on virtually anything.
The case has sucked in Lt. Gen. Otema Awany, the Commander of the UPDF Reserve Force. Awany was handed the crime preventers docket when Museveni ordered the crime preventers to be brought under the command of the Reserve Force in March 2018.
According to various forces The Independent spoke to, there was friction between Kamugisha and Gen. Awany. In a meeting over SACCO matters, Awany told Kamugisha “You have no right to fire and hire people randomly, if you want to change anyone, first write to us”.
Sources say due to Awany’s checks and inquiries, Kamugisha resorted to working with Maj. Gen. Proscovia Nalweyiso whom, Kamugisha claims, is the crime preventers’ coordinator at State House. This could not be independently verified. Kamugisha is said to have networks to State House.
A few weeks ago, Awany appointed an intelligence officer attached to the Reserve Force, a one Col. Bagadda, to follow up on the audit. However information on how far the audit has gone remains scanty.
Kamugisha speaks out
“Those stories are false,” said Kamugisha when The Independent contacted him for comment. He referred The Independent to Gorden Byakatonda, Principal Cooperative Officer at the Ministry of Trade and Cooperatives who he said was already auditing the SACCO. Byakatonda declined to comment on the matter.
The SACCO was set up by National Crime Preventers Forum in 2014. At its peak, Mwangaza savings were estimated between Shs800million and Shs1 billion. According to this source, over 50,000 crime preventers from all over the country subscribed to Mwangaza.
Each member paid an initial subscription was a fee of Shs17, 000, bought any number of shares in the SACCO at Shs10, 000 per share, and saved Shs5, 000 and Shs2, 000. President Yoweri Museveni also donated Shs50 million to the SACCO.
Several members told The Independent that Mwangaza SACCO risks closure due to alleged financial misconduct by Blaise Kamugisha. They say he has turned Mwangaza into a one-man affair, and is the principal signatory to the Mwangaza account after allegedly kicking out any member of the SACCO secretariat who dares to oppose him.
Mwangaza SACCO was set up on the advice of Museveni in 2014 at a pass out ceremony of crime preventers at the Police Training School Kabalye in Masindi. Museveni wanted the crime preventers to access quick loans from their savings.
