Rebecca Kadaga
Daunting documents have revealed how the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African Community Affairs (EAC), Rebecca Kadaga is abusing her office by taking her relatives on foreign trips at the ministry’s cost.
Kadaga, whose nephews and nieces are employed in various government ministries, has reportedly been using her position to bulldoze and intimidate bureaucrats, including Edith Mwanje, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of EAC, forcing them to clear travel abroad documents for her relatives even when they are not employees of the ministry.
According to sources, Kadaga has created fear in the ministry over payments to her relatives whom she ensures travel at every available opportunity to the extent of deploying non-ministry staff who are her political agents to spy and threaten bureaucrats who dare question or refuse to sign off the travel documents.
“The bureaucrats at the ministry tried to resist, but she fought the PS and refused to appraise her. She put the PS on pressure until she bowed down,” a source said.
Kadaga’s family members have been pocketing millions of shillings in per diem and air tickets at the expense of bona fide staff members of the ministry. A source intimated that the money would be requisitioned and drawn in cash, then given to Kadaga’s relatives as per diem to cover up accountability and audit queries.
A case in point is Pamela Kaudha, Kadaga’s niece, who works at Uganda Communication Commission (UCC) as the Consumer Affairs Complaints Advisor, but travels regularly at the ministry’s cost. A loose minute obtained by this paper shows that Kadaga, on 15th May 2022 wrote to the PS authorising her to clear Kaudha’s foreign trip to travel with her (Kadaga) to Arusha, Tanzania to attend the 8th Meeting of the Sectoral Council on Environment and Natural Resources, which took place from 16th to 20th May 2022.
In a separate loose minute, Kaudha travelled with Kadaga as her Personal Assistant (PA) to attend the 40th Ordinary Sectoral Council on Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment in Arusha from 23rd to 27th May 2022.
In the same month, Kaudha also travelled to Kinshasa, DRC on 29th May to participate in the mission to assess DRC’s business environment.
Earlier, Kaudha had travelled with Kadaga to Arusha for the 47th Extra-Ordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers, which took place on 16th – 18th March 2022.
Kadaga has travelled with Kaudha as either her political assistant or personal assistant on several other foreign trips using taxpayers’ money despite the latter being a non-ministry staff.
Between 6th to 11th September 2023, Kaudha was part of Kadaga’s delegation that travelled to London for the UK–Uganda Trade and Investment Convention.
On 9th October 2022, the two were again on the plane to Dubai for the Uganda-UAE Business Forum, which took place from 10th to 12th October.
The same niece was again part of Kadaga’s team to Italy for an exhibition organised by Cesena Fiera in Rimini Expo Centre from 2nd May to 6th May 2023.
Documents obtained also show that Kaudha travelled to Nairobi, Kenya for the President’s bilateral visit from 14th to 17th May 2024.
Other foreign trips include; a 3 day trip to Kisumu on 19th April 2024, 6 day trip to Nairobi and Arusha for the EAC Heads of Summit and ordinary meeting of the council, 4 day trip to Arusha for the EAC Games in December2021, 4 day trip to Arusha for EALA sittings from 12th to 16th June 2022 and another 4 day trip to Arusha from 28th November 2021.
In all the mentioned foreign trips, Kadaga’s niece-Kaudha pocketed about US$ 15,480 (about Shs57million).
ELIZABETH CAROLINE BABIRYE
Just like Kaudha, Babirye is also Kadaga’s niece who works at UCC. Babirye has, on a number of occasions chopped the ministry’s budget by travelling abroad as Kadaga’s domestic worker or assistant. On 8th September 2023, Babirye travelled as Kadaga’s assistant for the Uganda Trade and Investment Convention in London, UK.
Between 9th to 14th July 2024, Babirye attended the post-COVID-19 conference in Toronto. In May 2024, she also travelled to Canada for the World Junkanoo Festival and to Zambia from 2nd to 5th June 2024. From 18th to 21st June 2023, 6th to 8th November 2023 and 10th to 14th June 2024, Babirye was in Arusha for EALA sittings.
JONATHAN KANGO
Kango is Kadaga’s nephew who works at Parliament as an ICT officer. Despite working at parliament, Kango travels using the EAC Ministry’s budget as Kadaga’s assistant. He was a beneficiary of the US$1,800 per diem for accompanying Kadaga for the Global Busogo Innovation Symposium and Expo, which took place in Toronto, Canada, from 28th Sept to 4th October 2022. He also travelled for the UK-East Africa Health Investment Summit meeting in London on 25th April 2022.
TIMOTHY KIVUNIKE KADAGA
Kivunike is also one of Kadaga’s nephews and former guild president of Uganda Christian University (UCU) from 2019-2010. Kivunike has since been working as Kadaga’s political assistant, including hurling insults at her aunt’s critics on social media. He has also benefited from the EAC Ministry’s budget for travel abroad.
On 6th November 2022, he accompanied Kadaga for the Annual International Climate Change conference in Egypt and also travelled for the EAC summit in Ethiopia from 15th to 17th February 2024.
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