Seguya returns to UWA

KAMPALA. Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) Executive Director Andrew Seguya, resumed work last Friday following his suspension on November 21 last year.
Dr Seguya’s controversial suspension came after ivory estimated amounting to 1,355kg and valued at more than Shs2.5b disappeared from UWA’s strong rooms. The four staff charged with the ivory stores were also suspended.
When New Vision broke the story of ivory theft, President Museveni, who was hosting an international tourism event, the 39th ATA Congress between November 11-16, 2014, tasked the IGG to investigate the ivory saga. Ivory smuggling is a high profile criminal syndicate.
Daily Monitor understands that Tourism minister Maria Mutagamba was under pressure to send Dr Seguya on forced leave.
However, in a January 14, letter to the ministry of Tourism, the IGG advised Ms Mutagamba the UWA chief was sent on leave without following the “human resource manual” of both the ministry and the wildlife agency.
She said her office could not carry out the investigations successfully when the UWA chief was unfairly out of office and that failure to reinstate him could only be construed as obstructing investigations.
Last Friday, UWA board chairman Ben Otto held a staff meeting in Kamwokya, Kampala to welcome Dr Seguya back to office.
Dr Seguya who did not pick our telephone calls over the weekend, followed his return with posting photographs of him with the staff and another posing with two giraffe on his Facebook wall. Some of the comments on his wall read, “Dr, other people are not happy but forgive them. It has even rained seriously in our national park. It’s a blessing, congs afande,” posted Mworozi Johnson. And Tumushabe Larry Atwooki wrote, “#DrAndrewSeguya you are most welcome, lets continue to conserve for generations. Be blessed Dr”
According to a letter dated November 21, the Minister of Wildlife, Tourism and Antiquities Maria Mutagamba directed Dr Seguya to keep away his office pending investigations into the scandal that attracted worldwide condemnation.
In a letter titled “Alleged Ivory Scam,” Ms Mutagamba appointed Raymond Engena, the director of Tourism and Business Services to take charge of the organisation in acting capacity. The letter addressed to Ben Otto, was also copied to among others, the Prime Minister, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda.
On Friday, however, IGG spokesperson Ms Ali Munira told Daily Monitor that the suspension was not “done well” and that Dr Seguya was free to assume office. She, however, emphasised that investigations will continue.
Ms Mutagamba was not available for comment, but, the permanent secretary in the Tourism ministry, Ambassador Patrick Mugoya clarified that Dr Seguya was never suspended as was perceived by the public but rather was asked to take leave.
Before his suspension, Dr Seguya wrote a letter to the press saying it was him who instituted the audit team to do regular ivory stockpiling. He said it was absurd that he was being at the same time accused of stealing ivory.
Poaching and trafficking are increasingly controlled by organised criminal networks that undermine the rule of law and good governance and encourage corruption.
Ivory is a highly prized commodity in markets such as Malaysia and China as it is a sign of presige and wealth. From ivory, magnificent sculptures are made and with the increasing incomes of Chinese, the demand for ivory has increased in the past years, leading to the killing of thousands of elephants in Africa.

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