Kooki chief suspended over microfinance cash

Accountability. Mr Ananias Ssekyanzi is alleged to have liaised with other board members of a microfinance to defraud it, eventually leading to its collapse.

The Prime Minister of Kooki Chiefdom, Mr Ananias Ssekyanzi, has been suspended by the Kamuswaga, following a police investigation into suspected fraud, which reportedly caused the collapse of the Lake Victoria Basin SACCO.
A letter from the Kamuswaga, Mr Apollo Sansa Kabumbuli II, read: “Good governance and administration demands that in such a situation, one steps aside to pave way for impartial investigations.”
Meeting members of the Sacco in Rakai District on Monday, the Inspector General of Police, Lt. Gen. Kale Kayihura, ordered the arrest of Mr Ssekyanzi alongside 32 other people who were members of the board of trustees. The premier served as the executive director of the defunct microfinance institution.
The Sacco had established branches in Kyotera, Kalisizo, Mutukula, Lyantonde and Isingiro towns, had an estimated Shs2 billion by the time of its collapse last year.
Mr Ssekyanzi, however, yesterday said there were some people who used pseudo names when accessing loans, which made their efforts to retrieve the money difficult.
The IGP’s order follows a petition signed by about 1,000 former members, who demanded that the top leaders of the Sacco be prosecuted and forced to refund their money,.
In a report, the district CID officer, Ms Rose Nabakooza, pins the mangers for granting themselves loans and failing to service them as well as forging withdraw slips.

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