By Spy Uganda
Senior World Bank Director, Anne Namara Kabagambe, who is Rwandan, has landed in hot soup after she made a racist comment about city mogul Dr Sudhir Ruparelia, which has since sparked off wildfire in her life.
Trouble for Kabagambe started when she took to herTwitter handle and wrote very racist comments about Dr. Sudhir.
Kabagambe, who is currently the World Bank board director supervising 22 countries in Africa, referred to the Bank of Uganda (BoU) tweet to a story by Daily Monitor showing how Dr Louis Kasekende had bid farewell to staff.
Breaking from the norm of congratulating the departing person and wishing them the best of luck, Kabagambe instead attacked Sudhir by writing thus on twitter; “The Indian Sudil lobbied him out of office.”
In response to her attack, Sudhir called out Kabagambe as a “racist” who unfortunately is employed by the World Bank.
Sudhir tweeted thus; “What a racist? Yet working as director@WorldBank…” Feathers of The Same Bird.”
The comments from Ugandans that followed the thread expressed disappointment that Kabagambe had stooped so low as to play the racist card, well knowing that Sudhir is a Ugandan citizen of Asian origin.
Here below are some of the comments from Tweeps who followed the thread;
Obam Andrew Esq Replying to @akabagambe @BOU_Official and @DailyMonitor Even the best dancers leaves the dance floor at some point, leave room for others, this is Absolutely racist and should not be called for. There is a difference between a contract ending and being lobbied out of office, the score card better still gave the right indicators.
Baluku Godfrey commented saying, “Why play a race card @Kabagambe? Is Dr @SudhirRuparelia1 part of the appointing authority? Am disappointed in you @akabagambe.”
Geoffrey Baluku@BalukuGeoffrey”Only the appointing authority can extend or sack. In this case, Dr Kasekendes contract expired & has not been extended. The appointing authority is silent. Am wondering why you have to bring in Dr Sudhir unless u had other ulterior motives. Dr Sudhir deserves an apology from u.”
Travor Ug @the_travor_guyReplying to @akabagambe and 2 othersDiversity can only be understood by humane people- you can’t start categorizing people by their race. Indian, African etc its all the same thing. We are all against the corrupt! Disappointing from you @akabagambe @worldbank”
It should be noted that the saga started after former Bank of Uganda Deputy Governor Dr Louis Kasekende’s contract ended and president Yoweri Museveni refused to renew it. So, by her mean tweet, Kabagambe insinuated that Sudhir had successfully fought Kasekende out of office, which wasn’t true, because his contract had expired.
Sources reveal that Dr. Kasekende desperately wanted another term and reports indicate that he tried all means of lobbying for a contract renewal but Museveni just ignored him.
Dr Kasekende, 61 assumed office as Deputy Governor in January, 2010 and his contract ended on 14 January 2019.
It is understood that Museveni’s silence on the renewal of Kasekende’s contract meant he was not impressed with the work of the governors but honoured their contracts.
Dr Kasekende and his allies like Kabagambe now believe the turn of events leading to the end of his career at BoU were greatly influenced Sudhir and his allies, although the the scandals that have hit BoU in the recent past, which include dubious closure and sale of commercial banks, the Crane Bank sale to Dfcu Bank which backfired, the scandal of printing excess money and others could have sealed his fate.
Kasekende’s Role In the Dubious Crane Bank Sale To Dfcu Bank
In 2018, it came to light that Dr Kasekende was part and parcel of the team that took part in the controversial sale of Crane Bank to Dfcu in January 2017, a deal that haunts him, Dfcu and BoU to date. Crane Bank belonged to Dr Sudhir.
On 19 April, 2018, Kasekende wrote to the Attorney General William Byaruhanga, protesting a forensic audit by Auditor General into the operations of the Central Bank among which led to the closure of Crane Bank.
In his letter, Kasekende said the investigative audit on the resolution process of Crane Bank Ltd (in receivership) offends the sub-judice rule.
However, Members of Parliament opposed his move by saying that the Deputy Governor was trying to shield a mafia clique at the Central Bank which had done more harm than good to the economy of Uganda.
The legislators hinted on the unsatisfactory behaviour of the Bank of Uganda (BoU) in response to a report presented by the State Finance Minister for Planning, David Bahati, noting that not so long ago the Bank was under investigation for erroneously shutting down commercial banks in the country, a drama that played out in broad daylight probe which exposed bank chiefs as incompetent and fraudsters.
The Central Bank was also hit by another scandal after it emerged that employees at upcountry branches were stealing old cash notes meant to be destroyed and recycling them back into circulation.
Besides the scandals above, Kasekende was also named among the top BoU officials who amassed immense wealth during the time he was the working with the Central Bank, although most of the properties were shielded in the names of his wife and children.
All the above combined couldn’t leave Kasekende’s reputation intact, perhaps reason why Museveni declined to renew his contract.
