Uganda’s arguably best female talk show host Mildred Tuhaise has this Monday morning hosted Lt. Col Edith Nakalema on NBS’ Morning Breeze program and, to her credit, asked all the relevant questions including those relating to allegations of corruption in State House manifesting in investors being required to pay some good dollars before getting scheduled to meet the President. It’s a question that naturally made Nakalema uncomfortable as Tuhaise wondered how she can be an effective anti-corruption Tsar, heading the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU), when the State House where she is she derives her deployment orders from isn’t above suspicion. Instead it’s a place some of whose individual movers and shakers stand accused of involvement in grand corruption deals.
Nakalema, whose ACU will be making two years on Wednesday 2nd December, admitted to have heard about such allegations adding that she is aware that is the wrong perception some citizens have about State House. “It’s a rumor I have also heard about but I thank God that it’s no longer the case since Dr. [Kenneth Olusegun] Omona became PPS. No investor has been compelled to pay money to see the President anymore under Dr. Omona and it’s something I commend him for,” said Nakalema renowned for having been a key adversary to Omona’s predecessor Molly Kamukama who was PPS until mid-last year.
In order to demonstrate how she doesn’t fear anybody, including the so-called untouchables, Nakalema implored any investor or Ugandan with credible evidence of any State House official soliciting a bribe to step forward and share that information with her in confidence and see if action won’t be taken against the disclosed perpetrators. “A rumor is rumor and it’s not something we can act upon but it’s not too late if that information is availed to us we can still act and have the culprits reprimanded. We are willing to act and clean the name of State House once any bribery or corruption is reported to us.”
Nakalema also referenced on the predicament of Catherine Kusasira, the notorious Presidential Advisor on Kampala, and Dr. Hillary Musoke (aka Kisanja another assistant to HE the President) to demonstrate the fact that nobody can be untouchable anymore. “These are Presidential advisors who are therefore part of State House and the Presidency but you saw what happened. Pastor Siraji Semanda the chief plotter of the fraud is already in having been remanded to Kitalya prison and these other ones too aren’t yet off the hook. We are still investigating and their fate will depend on what we unearth as we continue with the investigations.”
The Museveni anti-corruption Tsar also furiously denied reports that some of the operatives in her ACU are corrupt and solicit bribes from people they are supposed to be investigating. She said through her example of being a very incorruptible individual, she had inspired the detectives and lawyers working under her to be equally above suspicion. “I simply can’t engage in taking bribes in my case because I’m a Christian and I have my God. And in any case I have the President who I can go to and get genuine financial assistance in case I need anything. Why engage in bribe-solicitation when the President is there?” Admitting that corruption is a huge monster, Nakalema said her office alone can’t do much “but families, parents and teachers must pray their part too because corruption is clearly a moral and spiritual issue.”
Thanking her husband Jimmy Asizua, her mother Midress Ndungyi and her father Canon Serwadda for being very supportive to her and as well as the President and NBS proprietor Dr. Kin Kariisa for all the free publicity, Nakalema denied undermining the IGG or any of the anti-corruption institutions. She said there is no way she could have accomplished so much in just 24 months if she cordially wasn’t working well with agencies like DPP, IGG, the Office of Auditor General John Muwanga, the police and courts of law. From the Judiciary, she specifically thanked the Principal Judge Dr. Flavian Zeija and Head Anti-Corruption Division of the High Court Justice Lawrence Gidudu.
Credit: mulengeranews.com
