Iron sheets: Police hand DPP 8 more files

The wheels of justice were spinning rapidly ning as the government took further steps to bring all suspects in the Karamoja iron sheets’ theft scandal to book.

This came as the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) said it has received more police files of the suspects.

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Ms Irene Nakimbugwe, the deputy spokesperson at the directorate, told Daily Monitor that she could “confirm that we have got eight more case files from the police after the Easter break”.

“I can’t comment any further but they (suspects) are in the categories of both politicians and technocrats. Also, a file can have more than one person, so we are speaking of more than eight suspects in total,” Ms Nakimbugwe said.

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The deputy spokesperson said during a telephone interview that the DPP is treating the matter with utmost urgency given this is a matter of great public interest, although she could not say exactly when the suspects would be arraigned.

“We are perusing [the files] and those that have sufficient evidence to warrant prosecution of the suspects therein, we shall ask the police to produce them in court and those that need carrying out more investigations,  we shall advise them so,” Ms Nakimbugwe said last evening.

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“We shall definitely notify the public when taking the suspects to court or of any other decisions that we shall take,” she added.

Up to 22 ministers, 31 MPs and 13 district administrative officers have been implicated in the scandal, alongside Vice President Jessica Alupo, Speaker of Parliament Anita Among and Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja.

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Last Thursday, Karamoja Affairs Minister Mary Gorretti Kitutu became the first suspect to be formally charged in court and remanded on charges of conspiracy to defraud and causing loss of public property.

Earlier yesterday, police spokesperson Fred Enanga said they are preparing to send all case files to the DPP for possible sanctioning of criminal charges.

“By the end of this very week, we shall have submitted all the remaining individual case files to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions of various suspects from whom we obtained statements,” Mr Enanga said during his weekly briefing at the police headquarters in Naguru, Kampala.

Mr Enanga said the police are taking care to put together a well-organised case, ensuring that their findings are thoroughly documented in a manner that makes it easy for the DPP to process for prosecution.

So far, dozens of Cabinet ministers, MPs, technocrats and chief administrative officers are separately being investigated by other government anti-graft agencies, including the Inspectorate of Government and the State House Anti-Corruption Unit, over their involvement in the iron sheets scandal.

The forwarding of the eight case files to the chief government prosecutor comes less than a week after Dr Kitutu was paraded before the Anti-Corruption Court in Kololo, Kampala.

She was charged with two counts of causing loss of public property and one count of conspiracy to defraud, before being remanded at Luzira Maximum Security Prison where she spent the Easter weekend.

The Manafwa District Woman MP is expected back in court today to have her bail application decided.

She is jointly charged with her younger brother, Michael Naboya Kitutu, and Mr Joshua Abaho, a senior assistant secretary in the Ministry of Karamoja Affairs in the Office of the Prime Minister.

Mr Abaho, who wasn’t in court last week, is also expected to be arraigned today after Chief Magistrate Marion Aciro issued criminal summons for him to appear last week.

The scandal involves the loss of 14,500 iron sheets estimated to have cost the taxpayer billions of shillings under the Karamoja Community Empowerment Programme -- an intervention which was designed to support reformed armed cattle rustlers (Karachunas) and other vulnerable persons in the impoverished sub-region.

In December 2021, Uganda’s Parliament passed a supplementary budget of Shs39 billion to support various programmes in Karamoja, which included the purchase of 100,000 iron sheets.

Kitutu’s charges

The DPP alleges that between June 2022 and January 2023, at the OPM stores in Namanve, Mukono District, the minister caused loss of public property to wit 9,000 pre-painted gauge 28 iron sheets by diverting the said iron sheets from the intended purpose. She is also accused of causing the loss of 5,500 iron sheets.

Under the charge of conspiracy to defraud, the minister and Mr Abaho, between June 2022 and January 2023, allegedly conspired to defraud beneficiaries under the Karamoja Community Empowerment Programme of 9,000 pre-painted iron sheets.