Kamya lauds ‘people power’, to probe corruption at Entebbe airport

Extortion and bribery allegations against officials at Entebbe international airport are indicators of gross mismanagement at the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA), the inspector general of government (IGG) Beti Olive Kamya, has said.

 

Kamya says, over the last five years, UCAA has been riddled with corruption scandals and the inspectorate has investigated 21 cases of corruption and huge sums of money recovered from fraudulent procurements.

 

Over the past two weeks, several travellers have taken to social media to vent their frustrations and cries against the persistent extortion and corruption by immigration officials. The travellers’ reports have since led to the arrest and dismissal of several staff at the airport by UCAA.

 

Kamya lauded the citizens for speaking out en masse, saying such fury and momentum is what is needed in the fight against corruption which has led to the loss of taxpayers’ money. The country loses nearly Shs 10 trillion every year or Shs 1 million per hour to corruption. 

 

She emphasised that corruption in Uganda cannot be effectively addressed without functional systems that enable the general public to be actively involved in the processes of promoting good governance and taking charge of the fight.

“The power of the people when they get out. True, the problem has been going on but it [UCAA] has never come out. The institutions have never come out to respond to the public outcry the way they did. Immigration came out, [U]CAA came out, but for us, we’re going to go deeper and investigate and persecute because we have the powers of prosecution, of interdiction, of summoning people. So we want to go really deep into what is going on,” said Kamya.

“CAA cannot investigate itself, it can investigate their staff but we need a systematic investigation in the entire institution. Where is the loophole that allowed this kind of thing to happen? So while they have gone to investigate, the IG is interested in the deeper issues because what you saw happening in [U]CAA is a tip of the iceberg under the ocean there is a whole mass of sold ice but that in itself is the tip of an iceberg. Since the problem is not going away we have decided to have thorough investigations on the systematic issues because what happens in the end is a result of so much going on behind the table,” she said.

Even though she commended the director of Citizenship and Immigration Control, Maj Gen Apollo Kasiita-Gowa for swiftly apprehending the culprits, Kamya said that it was not enough to dismiss or commit them to disciplinary action.

“As the inspectorate of government, we shall work with the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority and the Directorate of Immigration to prosecute those that were apprehended. It is not enough to dismiss or punish them, but we also need them to be prosecuted,” she said.

 

Following public complaints, all staff at the airport will now be required to wear name tags at all times for easy identification. UCAA also re-instated a 2021 directive to airport staff banning the use of personal mobile phones while on duty.

Last Friday, UCAA deputy director general, Olive Birungi Lumonya said that one of their staff suspected to be involved in extortion had been arrested after a video recording showing him bargaining for a bribe went viral on social media. Lumonya also said that since 2020, 26 staff operating at the airport have been terminated, suspended and others subjected to other disciplinary measures.

Some of the cases committed by the airport officials since 2020 include extortion of money, attempted extortion and human trafficking, negligence, aiding smuggling of rhino horns, theft of money from passenger bags, conspiracy to traffic humans, facilitating illegal passengers and others.