By KT Reporter
Mr. Futur Khsay Gabran, a wealthy investor from Eritrea, has written to the president, saying he is more than ready to appear before him and give hard and very implicating evidence against indicted police constable Alex Katungi who was recently arrested and remanded to Luzira prison after president Museveni instigated the state house anti-corruption unit to arrest him.
Museveni had received petitions from hundreds of victims who made extortion, land grabbing and torture claims against Katungi who allegedly would use his position as an policeman working under the environment protection unit of the police EPPU to cause to them all manner of mayhem.
His victims are mainly from areas like Kajjansi, Munyonyo, Kibiri near Busabala, Entebbe and other places. They include sand miners, property developers and operators of trucks carrying sand along those areas.
He would accuse them of degrading the environment and in return cain them or raze their structrures to the ground in case of those who couldn’t positively respond to his money extortionist demands.
He would lock up many at the Kajjansi police station without due process. There was a pregnant woman who was tortured to the point of having a miscarriage. And this is one of the cases that touched the heart of the president hence his intervention.
Gabran confesses in his letter to the president that he was misled by Katungi and some offiicials from the ministry of water and environment to construct his beautiful and expensive house in what he didn’t know was a protected wetland.
This happened in Kalunga Bunga Soya where Gabran says he was given what he was assured was a NEMA clearance certificate by Katungi to continue carrying on his construction works and that nothing would happen to him. Garbran confesses to have paid 4m in return for the support and protection Katungi promised him.
He discloses the phone number 0773…on which he says he was frequently communicating with Katubgi in relation to his NEMA clearance certificate.
The Eritrean businessman blames officials at the ministry of water & environment who he says introduced Katungi to him with assurances that he was the NEMA big man charged with issuing clearances to developers degazzeting wetlands and permitting those interested to carry out development activities there.
He says that he only realised he had been duped and that Katungi was ekiwaani/fake NEMA boss on the evening of April 4th this year when NEMA enforcement officers stormed his costruction site and arrested him for wetland encroachment.
That is when he realised that his treasured plot of land was in a wetland. His Sino truck UBE 146K red in color and back hoe UBF 335F JCB were impounded.
At the police station where he was caged, the Eritrean businessman was told he could only get released after getting cleared by NEMA. His next of kin contacted NEMA only to be told that they didn’t have anyone called Katungi. The Eritrean them realised he had been conned.
He says he instructed his lawyers to write the letter to the president while in police custody and he is now seeking for forgiveness saying he was misled into believing that Katungi was a true big man at NEMA and he believed it because being a foreigner, he didn’t know how Uganda’s wetlands clearance system works.
The same Eritrean has since written to NEMA executive director Doctor B Akankwatsa seeking for forgiveness and showing his willingness to meet the cost for the restoration of the Kalunga Bunga Soya wetland to repair the damage caused by his construction activities.
He doesn’t reveal names of the water & environment ministry officials who assured him that PC Alex Katungi was legit & a genuine NEMA official.
It’s now clear that the president’s intervention causing the arrest and remanding of Katungi has inspired many victims who had previously opted for silence after their pleas for help had for years been ignored by the leadership of Uganda police force since even superiors feared to cross Katungi’s path.
One of those who have felt inspired and spoke out is the Eritrean investor Futur Khsay Gabran. He first came to Uganda as a refugee but later on took to business and has been very successful. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
