Vice President Jessica Alupo, speaker Anita Among, prime minister Robinah Nabbanja, Finance minister Matia Kasaija, and other ministers have no case to answer over allegations of theft of iron sheets meant for Karamoja sub-region, the director of public prosecutions (DPP) Jane Frances Abodo has said.
Following the dramatized public arrest and trial of Karamoja Affairs minister Mary Goretti Kitutu, state minister for Finance and Economic Planning Amos Lugoloobi, and Karamoja Affairs state minister Agnes Nandutu, it was highly anticipated that the country’s top 4 officials after the president in terms of political hierarchy, would also face the same fate after being implicated by officials in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM). Some like Among and Kasaija even admitted to taking the iron sheets and have since returned them, saying that they were misled by officials.
Addressing journalists on Saturday, Abodo said after receiving over 40 files from the police and the State House Anti-Corruption unit who were investigating the theft and diversion of the 14,500 iron sheets, the files were reduced to 23. The other 17 files, she said, once screened, it was discovered that there was lack of sufficient evidence to proceed with the cases.
“17 case files have been closed and put away due to insufficiency of evidence. In considering the blameworthiness of the suspects, a number of factors were taken into account including the circumstances under which the iron sheets were received, the manner of use of iron sheets upon receipt, and refunds made in kind and cash,” said Abodo.
According to Abodo, some of the politicians were also misled by their personal assistants and they had no knowledge about the iron sheets. She said, some, had previously as far as three years ago, written to OPM seeking relief items like iron sheets to roof different places for social service provisions but had not been given feedback
Abodo said that when some of the politicians were interrogated, they said that they thought the items they had previously requested from OPM had finally been released to them so they can roof schools, churches, sub-county headquarters among others. She says that they have now remained with only 6 cases, and so far three files have already been taken to the courts, and the suspects charged.
The files include that of minister Kitutu who is facing, charges of loss of public property, corruption, and receiving stolen property, her brother Michael Naboya Kitutu and the minister’s personal assistant Joshua Abaho.
The other two case files are for ministers Lugoloobi and Nandutu who are separately charged with dealing with suspect property. Abodo told journalists that her office is left with three files that are still under investigation. When put on task to reveal whose files they are, Abodo said that the files are for technocrats but not politicians.
“We do not our investigations using media reports. We don’t take that as evidence, it may be the beginning of investigations but it doesn’t mean that we shall now use that. We use what is on the file. What was in the media and what was on the file is something so different because in the media it was actually that these ministers went and signed for these iron sheets but when you read on the file, you find that some of them were not even aware. They were just informed by their PAs that we have received iron sheets, where do we take them?” said Abodo.
The Constitution gives the DPP mandate to reopen a closed case file once she gets evidence she deems sufficient to stand trial against a suspect. The DPP further revealed that so far out of 14,500 iron sheets that were said to have been diverted, 6,100 have been refunded in kind, 1,000 paid in cash and 2,295 recovered from suspects’ homes. She added that about 5,105 iron sheets are yet to be recovered.
President Museveni on April 3, 2023, wrote to Nabanja saying those who were involved in the iron sheets scandal made a political mistake and he also promised to make political action.
The Observer
