By KT Reporters
Wherever he has been posted to serve, in his public service career spanning over 20 years, veteran RDC Mpimbaza Hashaka has always raised dust and made those he perceives to be corrupt sleepless. There is consensus among those who him that indeed, the fearless man from Kisoro takes no prisoners.
He likes whistle-blowing and he is never intimidated. He is the loyal Museveni cadre who will fight corruption and raise the red flag regardless of who gets hurt. Some say that this uncompromising character is the reason why mafia actors ganged up to ensure he always gets deployed to very remote places where he can’t access media cameras to amplify his relentless fights against evil wherever he comes across it.
He was once RCC for Kampala City (in the early 2010s) and in his public-spirited approach, many rogue-minded yet powerful actors got hurt and ganged up to influence deployment decision-making centers to ensure that he is always deployed very far away from Kampala where he can’t access media cameras because he likes exposing the mighty involved in wrongdoing whenever he comes across such. Obongi, where he currently works from, is one of the remotest and least developed or exposed districts of Uganda. He has been here chairing the district security committee and doing stuff for now nearly three years. He says he has faced plenty of adversity but promises to never get deflated.
The hard-to-reach Obongi has no reliable electricity supply, yet telephone and Internet connectivity is equally complex. This explains why many of those who get deployed there to work as RDCs, Deputy RDCs and Police officers like CIDs or even DPCs quickly lobby to be transferred back to better exposed and better social-serviced districts.
In his case, Mpimbaza Hashaka says he likes challenges and has no problem staying put in Obongi and do his best to safeguard the interests of government and Gen Museveni who is his appointing authority. Since going to Obongi, nearly three years ago, Mpimbaza has characteristically stood up to wrongdoers even when it has meant being isolated and standing alone.
He says that in Obongi there is so much corruption, enabled by connivance to the extent that of the Shs50bn that the GoU and World Bank had invested for DRDIP (Development Response to Displacement Impact Project) project a quarter ended up being misappropriated, to the extent that none of the wrongdoers can ever be brought to justice even when there is overwhelming evidence against them. He says that to be able to successfully eat the DRDIP money, meant to support Obongi’ district’s capacity to participate in refugee-hosting operations, the thieves within the Obongi local government were leveraging on high level connections they have over the years built within officials at the OPM and inside Police whose CID officers are supposed to investigate such crime and cause the same to be prosecuted.
Mpimbaza Hashaka says that instead, several CID chiefs in Obongi have always ended up being captured by members of what he contemptuously calls the thieving cabal. “I have been very outspoken against such compromised Police CIDs who often get transferred but whoever replaces them, turns out to be even more rotten.” Hashaka says that time came and he concluded that nobody would be deployed to head CID in Obongi and permanently resist capture. “I decided to work with Gen Isoke’s SHACU but they too would get frustrated because they inevitably have to deepend on area Police CIDs to investigate. I have lately found a very dependable ally in the Deputy IGG Dr. Patricia Achan who has been very decisive in cracking the whip and that’s how we have been able to make progress in such a short time.”
That as a result of Achan’s incorruptibility and keenness to sort out the mess, some of the thieving Obongi district officials have been made to refund the hundreds of millions embezzled on projects like DRDIP and also from the government tractors scheme, which thieves in Obongi had hijacked. That, whereas the tractors were meant to support local farmers, the district leaders have been conniving to hire them out to Uganda Prisons at the rate of Shs400,000 per tractor per day and that such cash, made using the district fuel, ends up in the pockets of individual district bosses. That the farmers, for whom the President availed these tractors, can never get a chance to use them.
Revealing that in his capacity as the district Security Committee chairman, he has reported a total of more than 200 corruption cases involving district technical officers but all of them end up being closed down by Police CIDs under very mysterious circumstances. “In some cases, those supposed to be investigated pay money to make sure that the relevant files get stolen and go missing from the Police’s CID office.”
Hashaka, who equally had no kind words for former area CAO Andrew Leru saying that instead of being prosecuted was only transferred from Obongi to Manafwa, also made reference to the Shs260m which was corruptly expended on constructing a house for the Obongi Health Center 4 which ended up having only three rooms. “How can Shs260m be blown up on just three rooms in a remote poor place like Obongi?” Hashaka furiously wonders. He says that the BoQS were very clear but the district leadership altered everything and delivered less than what had been budgeted for. “They used rotten timber for roofing purposes where the BoQs reflected steel and in the process, a lot of money was saved and shared.”
“They generally used much inferior materials at every stage than had been budgeted and funded by the government and in the process more than half of that Shs260m ended up being eaten,” Hashaka says adding that he was shocked when all the elected leaders got compromised and kept quiet, leaving him to fight alone.
That there was another brickets-making project in Palorinyi Sub County which was called Yenga Cooking Stove & Brickets-making project. That whereas Shs52m was expended, there was nothing done at all on the ground under that project. “I thank the Deputy IGG Dr. Patricia Achan who came and reopened the entire case and insisted that the former CAO Andrew Leru pays back the money on behalf of those who siphoned it out.”
Mpimbaza Hashaka says Andrew Leru, who is now eyeing one of the MP seats in Adjumani district come 2026, doesn’t deserve even one single vote because of moral unfitness. He demands to know why Leru permitted Engineer Ivan Onapa to be recruited as the district engineer for Obongi well knowing that he had previously been expelled from being a UNRA worker, with disgrace over a fuel management scandal in Moyo district. He thanks Councillors who fought hard to ensure that Andrew Leru ceased to be CAO for their district but he blames the supervisors in Kampala who transferred him to Manafwa as opposed to retiring him in public interest.
Besides demanding for prosecution of the gentleman who for long served as the Desk officer for DRDIP project, Hashaka also demands sanctioning for Andrew Leru over the Shs14m that allegedly got misappropriated from the tourism lodge and conference facility which the GoU had built in the district to boost local revenue generation for Obongi District which experiences a lot of transit travelers but hasn’t so far attracted private sector actors to invest in acomodation facilities. Mpimbaza Hashaka adds that the female friend who was aiding all this mischief regarding these lodges should equally be prosecuted.
That curiously acting under the CAO’s name, some guests took up residence at this same GoU lodging facility for more than 2 years and in the process caused a lot of financial loss to Obongi District LG because they never paid even a penny to the district coffers. He believes this is something the former CAO should be made to answer for as well. Mpimbaza Hashaka also thanks the Deputy IGG Dr. Patricia Achan for supporting and emboldening his lonely voice while demanding for interdiction and prosecution of Eng Geoffrey Tako and the district Senior Labour Officer besides requiring them to pay back hundreds of millions he claims were lost under their watch. He says for long, such people had been shielded by Police staff who would help to deliberately mess up criminal files on their behalf in return for monthly retainer. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com.
