By Spy Uganda
Popular city lawyer Appollo Makubuya’s Personal Assistant (PA) Jonathan Mwesigwa, is in coolers, after being arrested over allegations that Kabaka Ronald Mutebi received hundreds of millions of shillings from President Yoweri Museveni in exchange for Federo.
Mwesigwa, a lawyer, who was arrested by a joint team of Police and sister security agencies, is the Private Personal Assistant to Makubuya, the former Deputy Katikkiro of Buganda Kingdom.
He was arrested for alleging in an article published on his Facebook page and circulated widely on Whatsapp and other platforms that when President Museveni visited the Kabaka at the Bbanda Palace last year, the Monarch received a bribe from the President, which convinced him to back off the demands for Federo (Ebyaffe) in return for vehicles and wages for Mmengo ministers.
Our Spies reveal that Mwesigwa is currently detained at the Special Investigations Division (SID) Kireka, where detectives are squeezing his balls such that he provides evidence for the alleged bribe.
It should be noted that bribery is a serious crime and the allegations, sources say, have the potential to cause anarchy within the Kingdom of Buganda and Uganda at large, since they portray the government as one that gives bribes and the Kabaka as a lowly person who accepts bribes.
However, sources contend that Mwesigwa must have had evidence before he published these allegations given the fact that he is Makubuya’s Private Personal Assistant who is a Senior Palace Advisor to the Kabaka.
Commenting about Mwesigwa’s arrest, a reliable source within the Joint Antiterrorism Taskforce (JATT) intimated to our Spy that; “We want him to help us in our investigations that the Kabaka of Buganda received a bribe from the fountain of honor, His Excellency the President of the Republic of Uganda. We believe that given his closeness to Owek Makubuya, he must be having concrete evidence.”
The offending article titled “Mmengo Chose Cars Over Federo to Fight Covid-19” was published on Sunday April 18, 2020 on Facebook and Whatsapp.
In the article Mwesigwa alleges that “you may recall that on February 5, 2019 Kabaka Mutebi II hosted President Museveni at his Bbanda Palace over secret talks—the official version of which was reported by the press.
One wonders, though, why the eleven car consignment of i.e., eight Toyota Land Cruisers and three Toyota TX Prados was not declared as part of the deal!
The answer, one believes, lies not solely in some fundamental moral failings of the current (mis)leadership at Mmengo, but rather in understanding why it chose to “hire” corruption and yield to Museveni’s apparent politics of patronage—fully knowing (B)Uganda’s objectives of severing his cords of manipulation, exploitation, encirclement and strongman-ness inter alia.”
Mwesigwa further alleges that the Kabaka reshuffled his cabinet which led to dropping Apollo Makubuya from his position of Deputy Katikkiro as a direct result of Museveni’s visit to Bbanda Palace.
“Two other immediate outcomes of that ‘visit’ comprised: the ejection from Mmengo’s Cabinet of those officials opposed to her current policy course—several of them senior in rank; and also, the creation of clogged Ministries to be run by yes men—all under the guise of meriting a small but ‘efficient’ admin,” Mwesigwa alleged in his article.
One of the senior officers who left Mengo in the said reshuffle was Owek Makubuya. Mwesigwa was until then an employee of Buganda Kingdom whom Makubuya directly recruited directly, disregarding the normal recruitment processes at Bulange.
After Makubuya’s sacking, Mwesigwa resigned and went on to continue working with Makubuya as his Private Personal Assistant, a position he still occupies today.
Sources reveal that Mwesigwa further alleged that “Mmengo ought to know that the salary and car deal is disastrous to Buganda’s reputation, the well-being, will, wishes and aspirations of her people; and to the trifling harmony and unity with fellow Ugandans.”
However, the machinery at Mmengo has since remained tight-lipped about the scandal, after choosing not to issue a statement about the same.
