By Ronaldo Nagye
Uganda police Director in charge of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Amos Ngabirano has fled the country to England. According to a source at police headquarters in Naguru Kampala, a civilian turned police director left the country about one week back. It has been established that Ngabirano left Uganda fearing an impending arrest following instructions by president Museveni to investigate him on several charges of abuse office and embezzlement.
Last year, President Museveni during a high level security meeting at State House directed IGP Gen Kale Kayihura to fire Ngabirano following accusations of incompetence and corruption. Museveni also directed that all sensitive assignments related to the multi-billion CCTV project and national security should be removed from him. Ngabirano has been one of the most powerful police officials in the country with unlimited access to the IGP and managed a classified budget estimated at over Shs 500bn. Commander in chief reportedly acted following an intelligence report accusing Ngabirano’s ICT department of convincing Speaker Rebecca Kadaga to release over Shs 400m to buy an inexistent ‘bomb detector’. It was said Ngabirano’s department told Kadaga shortly before the 2016 presidential elections that former Premier Amama Mbabazi wanted to kill her. Kadaga and Mbabazi never used to see eye to eye due to their presidential ambitions.
Ngabirano’s ICT department exploited the rivalry between Kadaga and Mbabazi to encourage her to buy the ‘bomb detector which was never bought. Ngabirano was also accused of inflating costs of teargas trucks and other classified procurements. He has been sitting on the same classified contracts committee with Lemegius Twino and Police undersecretary Rogers Muhairwe. The president was incensed upon being informed that a lot of money was unaccounted for in the procurement of several national defense equipment. Gen Kayihura handed him the post of ICT Director but his swift accumulation of wealth and the love for expensive cars is said to have landed him in trouble.
IGP kale Kayihura was quoted in Mubende recently ‘disagreeing’ with former Buyende District DPC Muhammad Kirumira that it was not true that police is rotten from the top as he alleges but rather from the bottom.
