The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Past corruption cases against Kutesa
2017: The leaked so-called Paradise Papers reveal that Kutesa in 2012 hired Appleby, a company renowned for creating offshore account for the rich and powerful, to form a company for him in the tax haven of Seychelles in an attempt to hide his money and dodge taxes.
2014: He is accused of corruption as his candidature for UN General Assembly presidency is announced. More than 9,000 people signed an online petition urging the U.S. to block him. Despite the campaign, Kutesa was elected.
2012: Kutesa, through his son-in-law, Albert Muganga, was cited in a fight to secure a deal for the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway for the Chinese company called CCECC.
2012: Kutesa is mentioned in the deals surrounding the construction of Karuma and Isimba power dams.
2009: Kutesa is mentioned in elections related deal worth $15 million to update the voters register by the Electoral Commission. A US firm which had been pre-qualified for the deal attributed suspension of the award to competing interests of presidential insiders. Kutesa was connected to a competing firm from Bangladesh.
2005: Kutesa is named in a deal described by Bright Rwamirama, who at the time was the privatisation committee chairman, as “outright robbery”. The deal involved the privatisation of Uganda Diary Cooperation Ltd (UDCL). While the entity was valued at $9 million with an annual turnover of $12 million, President Museveni blocked a process by the privatisation unit to have the entity’s 70 % sold to the best bidder, and instead decided to offer it to a Malaysian company called Malee Sampran PCL for three years at a nominal fee of $ 1. It emerged that Malee was to incorporate a company named Pan African Foods Ltd (PAFL), which would take over DCL. It later emerged that Malee was a smokescreen for PAFL, which despite being unregistered was connected to Kutesa.
2001: President Museveni re-appointed him after elections because he allegedly financed that election with $500,000.
2001: Kutesa is named among members of President Museveni’s campaign task force that was fronting Lithotec, a South African company to bag a tender to supply ballot papers. The others were his nephew, Sam Rwakoojo, who is the Secretary to the Electoral Commission and Enos Tumusiime, a high-flying city lawyer. IGG investigations revealed that Lithotec’s competitor—Skipco Property Limited– had been wrongly disqualified from the tender and the contract was cancelled. Nevertheless, Lithotec got the contract to supply ballots for the presidential elections.
2001 November: Lithotec gets another contract to supply ballots for the local government elections. The government “loses” US$ 1 million in deal.
2000: Kutesa mentioned in the deal to procure a technology, called an Intelligent Network Monitoring/verification System (INMS), estimated to cost the Ugandan taxpayer about Shs100 billion.
1999: Parliament censures Kutesa.
1998: A parliamentary committee investigating the privatisation of Uganda Airlines Corporation concludes that it had been “manipulated and taken advantage of by Kutesa and “a few politically powerful people who sacrifice the people’s interests.”
1997: During privatization of 80% of Sheraton Hotel, Kutesa, then minister for Investment and Planning is named by a parliamentary committee for soliciting a bribe of between $2-6 million together with Mayanja Nkanji, who was Justice Minister, Mathew Rukikaire, who was the minister of state for privatization and Salim Saleh. The IGG found that three ministers had influenced the award.
1995: Kutesa, as board chairman, used an accounting firm close to him to undervalue the ENHAS shares, which he later sold to himself and Salim Saleh cheaply. Saleh acquired 45% shares for $3.75 million and sold them at $9.45 million. Kutesa was the minister of state for Investment and Planning.
1993: Kutesa’s first publicly known corruption deal. In 1993, when ground handling at Entebbe International Airport was privatised, a company called Effortes, a subsidiary of Caleb International owned by President Museveni’s brother, Caleb Akandwanaho aka Salim Saleh and Global Airlink owned by Kutesa unfairly took 40% according to a parliament investigation.
This fellow is untouchable surely. All those crimes are each enough to penalise any other ordinary mortal.
MUSEVENI has a serious inferiority complex towards KUTEESA , being the only man who has defeated him, at least on public record, in a fair fight.
KUTEESA is happy to seat in the background and let M7 do all the shouting, spitting fire, while he is doing his deals in the background, just like a Mugaga lets his askari do all the dirty work while he is enjoying his sleep.
KUTEESA never has a single sleepless night while M7 had to lie through his teeth about not knowing whether the so called “aid” money reached the right recipients, really!!!!!!!!!!
Not a single dime worth its value moves in or out or within Uganda without M7 knowing, the reason MBABAZI was not able to mobilize any funds for his campaign.
I think Transparency International made perfect fools of themselves with that award to the president. That they conceived of it at all makes no sense at all – given Uganda’s rankings in their own anti-corruption index. That they went ahead to give it after the revelations in the US court is simply ridiculous!