Agnes Nandutu
The undersecretary in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), Geoffrey Sseremba has become the second state witness to testify against junior Karamoja Affairs minister Agnes Nandutu.
Nandutu is being tried before lady justice Jane Okuo Kajuga over the alleged diversion of 2000 iron sheets meant for the vulnerable people of Karamoja. The prosecution alleges that in June 2022 at the OPM stores in Namanve and Kkola Cell Bulwanyi parish Mukono district, Nandutu dealt with, and caused loss of government property contrary to section 10 of the Anti-Corruption Act of 2000 as amended.
Sseremba whose role is to manage expenditures at OPM was the first technical witness to take the court through steps on how budgets are approved and allocated in the various dockets of the ministry.
He was first tasked by the prosecution led by David Bisamunyu to outline the roles of both a cabinet and state deputy minister. Such roles in the dockets include among others guiding and supervising activities in the respective ministry.
Sseremba who also doubles as an accounting officer testified that in 2022, a total of Shs 39.94 billion was approved for peace-building activities in the Karamoja sub-region. According to Sseremba, the key aim of the intervention was to address the disadvantaged situations, promote or cause development in the form of infrastructure and also extend social welfare services such as schools and health centers to the people of Karamoja.
It was hoped that the interventions would persuade the people of Karamoja to embrace disarmament and abandon cattle rustling. Target groups such as youth, women, local councils, and the elderly were equally to be sensitized to embrace development.
Sseremba told the court that all those activities had to be fulfilled through the procurement of goats and iron sheets to be distributed at no cost to the targeted beneficiaries or the people of Karamoja. He said that MM Integrated Steel Mills and Roofings Uganda Limited were contracted for the supply of 10,000 pieces of painted Iron sheets gauge 28′ although the projection was for about 100,000 pieces of iron sheets.
He confirmed that the iron sheets were delivered to the OPM stores at Namanve. Sseremba, himself is battling charges before the same court for causing the government a loss of money by corruptly releasing Shs 4 billion to various people for peace-building activities in Karamoja without a proper work plan.
Both Nandutu and Sseremba are out on bail. Earlier in the day, the hearing started with the first state witness Evelyn Hilda Bazibu, a political assistant to Nandutu. Bazibu is also the program scheduler at Nation Television (NTV) where Nandutu worked before she turned to elective politics.
Bazibu admitted before the court that she received and signed for and collected the iron sheets on behalf of the minister. Hearing of witnesses continue on August 30 as the prosecution indicated that it had a total of more than ten witnesses. Nandutu is being represented by a team of lawyers including Evans Ochieng, Caleb Alaka and Nandah Wamukota.
Source: The Observer
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