Internal Affairs Senior Minister Maj. Gen. Kahinda Otafiire has confirmed that President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has picked interest in and directed him to lead investigations into allegations that there is a group of people including police officers involved in and facilitating human trafficking of desperate Ugandans.

Otafiire revealed that investigations will be expanded not only to police officers but other Ugandans especially politicians since preliminary investigation have shown that they are the biggest beneficiaries from the vice.

Highly placed Security sources told theGrapevine that Museveni was briefed that a number of people connive with police officers who fake their arrests, undress and handcuff them and place them in police cells where they take their photos and record them on video crying for help.

This is presented as evidence of torture from Museveni’s government because of their support for the opposition.

Sources divulged that police officers not only stop at faking arrests and detention, they also fake police references and police bond papers showing that the said person has pending criminal charges in Uganda.

After getting police support, the said Ugandans connive with the opposition political parties especially National Unity Platform (NUP) who give them recommendation letters after paying some money which they use as evidence when they are applying for visas and other travel documents to go and seek political asylum in European countries, America and Canada among others.

Museveni was briefed that currently, Uganda is one of the leading countries when it comes to people asking for asylum based on hostile politics back home.

“The situation these police officers created in connivance with asylum seekers placed President Museveni’s government in bad light because it shows that Ugandans are not happy with his leadership and he is using a high hand to lead them,” a source said.

Maj. Gen. Otafiire also confirmed that human trafficking of Ugandans gives Uganda a bad name on the international scene and it is going to become very difficult for serious Ugandans who want to travel abroad for education, medication, research to be given documents to travel in those countries because of fears that they will disappear in those countries.

During the briefing, Museveni was given a detailed report narrating how former CBS radio presenter and comedian Patrick Mujuuka connived with police officers to get documents he used to secure a visa that helped him to go to the United States of America.

Sources claim that Museveni was told that Mujuuka alleged that his life was in danger because Museveni’s government wanted to finish him for being a staunch supporter who uses his radio position to promote National Unity Platform (NUP) and former presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine).

“The explanation and documents helped him to get an interim stay in the United States and he is getting good money through doing a number of jobs,” a source said.

However, other sources at CBS radio said that Mujuuka decided to run to the United States because his job at CBS was threatened so he had to plan early before being fired permanently.

The issue of trafficking Ugandans comes at a time when former NUP Chief moblizer Sulaiman Kidandala is holed up in South Korea facing charges of trafficking Ugandans into South Korea.

If convicted, he is likely to be sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.

There is also a group of concerned citizens who petitioned the Canadian Premier Justine Trudeau to review the application filed by Ugandans who seek asylum based on political persecution claiming that many of the applications were based on false grounds.

Senior presidential advisor on media Joseph Tamale Mirundi also twisted the issue of human trafficking revealing that majority of Ugandans taken for greener pastures are sold to business people in different countries so that their internal organs are harvested and sold at a high price.

He revealed that Museveni is also investigating allegations that powerful people in his government in involved.

He explained that Museveni is going to be very tough on people who are trafficking Ugandans because for the last one year, he is on the drive of cleaning his name.

Such allegations have resulted into sanctioning of top government officials by United States, Canada, United Kingdom and other European countries.

Minister Otafiire said that the long arm of the law will catch any one involved in human trafficking of Ugandans and police officers will be expelled from the force with disgrace.

However, shadow foreign affairs Minister Muwada Nkunyingi rubbished Otafiire’s allegation that NUP is involved in human trafficking. He threatened that very soon, he will table on the floor of parliament the names of powerful government officials involved in the said crime.

He further explained that those government officials hide under labour exporting companies to traffic Ugandans and sell them into slavery abroad.

Ronald Muwenda Mutebi the Kabaka of Buganda recently warned youths to be very careful with people who entice them with ideas of going abroad to work.

The King warned that some of these people harbor bad intentions against them because they are only looking at how they can financially benefit from them.

By Sengooba Alirabaki

Former Kawempe North legislator Al-Hajji Latif Ssebaggala Ssengendo has confirmed to theGrapevine that he has abandoned his political dream to replace Muhammad Ssegirinya as Kawempe North member of parliament come 2026.

In 2021, Ssebaggala who had been in parliament for 20 years was defeated by the then Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) Councilor Ssegirinya who contested on the National Unity Platform (NUP) ticket.

Ssebaggala declined to take legal action against Ssegirinya and concentrated on clandestine political mobilization.Voters in the constituency were very sure that he was coming to reclaim his political seat.

However, exclusively speaking to theGrapevine, Ssebaggala revealed that in 2026, he is going to contest against Emmanuel Sserunjogi for Kawempe Division mayorship seat.

When asked why he abandoned the juicy MP seat and decided to contest for a mayor, he explained that he spent a number of years in parliament and made a big contribution to his people and now he wants to serve them in another capacity as a Division mayor.

theGrapevine established that Barbie Itungo Kyagulanyi, the wife to Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) has a hand in Ssebaggala’s decision to contest as mayor.

Itungo is one of the strong members of the inner circle in NUP who are highly respected given that she is the first lady and her decisions are always final and not contested.

However, Ssebaggala’s decision to change his mind and to contest against Sserunjogi has created for him a hostile environment in the area because Sserunjogi’s supporters have started sabotaging his new campaign by mobilizing people not to listen to him.

“He should retire from active politics, he has nothing to add to Kawempe and we shall not allow him to address people in our presence,” one of the foot soldiers who is a close friend to Sserunjogi said.

“He shouldn’t waste his resources and energy because he will lose in 2026. Bobi Wine will not abandon people he knows very well in favour of people like Ssebaggala who was a staunch Democratic Party (DP) supporter,” a source said.

Other sources said that Itungo is still making political calculations after being advised to contest for Wakiso district woman Member of Parliament to replace NUP’s Betty Esther Naluyima who is a relative to veteran journalist and also spokesperson of the Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU) Andrew Mwenda.

Mwenda revealed that Naluyima is one of the NUP candidates in 2021 who were surprised by their win because she did not have money to move around the entire district campaigning.

Before Itungo comes into the political picture, after one Sylvia Namutyaba, a foot soldier and also a darling to Bobi Wine also declared interest to contest against her for NUP ticket come 2026.

theGrapevine has further established that Ssegirinya is also still interested in the seat and even though he is still receiving treatment, he has plans to start his political campaign in 2025 after fully recovering from a strange disease. He is currently still getting medication from Nairobi Kenya.

“He has a lot of unfinished business that is why he is coming back,” Alex Luwemba his personal assistant said.

Alex Waiswa Mufumbiro the party deputy spokesperson is also interested in the seat because he is very sure that it will be very difficult for him to win a political seat back home in Busoga.

President Museveni’s National Resistance Movement (NRM) has used a lot of energy to make sure that it sweeps Busoga and removes all traces of the opposition.

Kampala city lawyer Erais Nalukoola has also declared interest to contest on the same seat and has confirmed talks with Bobi Wine so that he is fronted by NUP.

Since Norbert Mao the DP president general entered a political marriage with President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s government, Nalukoola, who is DP’s chief legal advisor feels his career in the party is threatened because he protested against the agreement.

Sources close to Nalukoola said that come 2025, he is likely to cross to NUP if the ongoing negotiations with Bobi Wine succeed but if they fail, he is going to stand as an independent.

Nalukoola is very understands the political dynamics in Kawempe Division because he was once a youth councilor.

By that time, he was still a student at Law Development Center and a personal lawyer to a number of prominent families in Kawempe.

Bobi Wine is at the cross roads given that he has to take a tough decision of stoping his wife from contesting for a political office come 2026 as he did in 2021 when he stopped her from contesting for Wakiso district woman Member of Parliament seat.

Recently, Commissioner of Parliament Mathias Mpuuga Nsamba revealed that Bobi Wine is under siege and his family members are using him as a weapon to gain politically, socially and economically.

However, Bobi Wine rubbished the allegation.

By Sengooba Alirabaki

Maverick Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) Junior Minister Joseph Christopher Kabuye Kyofatogabye has narrated how he survived being humiliated by angry traders at State House before his boss President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni last week.

Minister Kabuye was part of the team that organised the meeting between President Museveni and traders to solve their tax grievances with Uganda Revenue Authority  (URA) after they closed their shops for a week.

The angry traders were protesting against the high tax levies slapped on them and the use of the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing System (EFRIS) as a mechanism to collect taxes.

Minister Kabuye revealed that he chickened out of the meeting at the last moment because his intelligence briefed him at the last hour before the meeting that there was a group of traders who had strategised to humiliate him before the President like they tried to do to URA Commissioner General John Musinguzi Rujoki.

theGrapevine recently reported how a female trader, a one Doreen Nakirya shocked the meeting when she told the President that Rujoki’s men sexually harass female traders when collecting taxes and the president directed his Special Forces Command (SFC) detectives to record statements from both from Nakirya and the male taxman who she accused of sexual harassment. They were later released.

Kabuye said that a section of traders were not happy when he told them not to first consult National Unity Platform (NUP) boss Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) on what to tell Museveni yet others were planning to ‘Kulabisa’ Museveni as Bobi Wine encouraged them to do by exposing and humiliating leaders.

“Those people who were stopped at the State House gate were not traders but they were taken to State House to humiliate me. Never joke with the government, it has intelligence,” Kabuye boasted.

Sources within the traders associations confirmed the allegation adding that they wanted to tell the president that Kabuye was using government’s money to bribe a section of traders to withdraw from the strike so that he is praised as an influential minister in the city.

The sources added that when Kabuye invited the traders at Africana Hotel to discuss their issues before meeting the president, he came with people who they didn’t know in the trader’s circle and his plan was to declare before the media that they are ready to open the shops.

“We identified them before the meeting and we started grilling them to tell us where they operate business from and their shop numbers. When they failed, we forced them out of the meeting and we frustrated Kabuye’s meeting,” one of the leaders in the trader association said.

He divulged that they wanted to tell the President that Kabuye is very arrogant and doesn’t listen to them and like former KCCA Executive Director Jenniffer Musisi, he runs the city on orders.

He added that they know that political leaders are mobilizing non traders to be taken to President Museveni’s meeting on 7^th May 2024 at Kololo Independent grounds to tell lies to the big man.

On that date, Museveni is expected to make a final announcement on the issue of EFRIS.

By Hadijjah Namagembe