Six Sembabule District Officials Interdicted Over Corruption Allegations

Title: Six Sembabule District Officials Interdicted Over Corruption Allegations

Six senior officials in Sembabule District have been interdicted over allegations of corruption, financial mismanagement, abuse of office and neglect of duty.

The affected officials are Allan Kiyemba, the District Physical Planner; Geoffrey Mugabe, the District Natural Resources Officer; Twaha Musoke, the Community Development Officer; Emmanuel Kananura, the Senior Land Management Officer; Michael Kakuru, Secretary to the District Land Board; and Henry Bukenya, the District Forestry Officer.

They are accused of soliciting bribes, abusing their positions and conspiring to defraud both the government and residents, allegations authorities say have negatively affected service delivery in the district.

The interdictions follow a directive from the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government, Ben Kumumanya, after a public baraza convened by Local Government Minister Balam Barugahara on Thursday to assess service delivery in Sembabule.

In a letter addressed to the Sembabule Chief Administrative Officer, Kumumanya ordered the immediate interdiction of the six officials to allow investigations by the State House Anti-Corruption Unit and other relevant government agencies. He said the decision was based on complaints raised during the public meeting, where residents and district leaders accused the officials of corruption, misconduct and abuse of office.

According to Barugahara, the officials are alleged to have solicited bribes, illegally collected statutory fees from residents and diverted public funds for personal benefit.

Preliminary findings indicate that Kananura and Kakuru allegedly extorted more than Shs3 billion from residents under the guise of facilitating land title processing. The minister noted that these payments were allegedly collected despite the government fully funding the processing of 1,500 land titles under the Land Tenure Regularisation Programme.

Since September 2025, the Ministry of Lands has been issuing free land titles to selected residents in Sembabule District to help resolve long-standing land disputes that had left many at risk of eviction.

Barugahara also linked Mugabe and Bukenya to an alleged illegal charcoal and timber trade operating within government gazetted forest reserves.

Meanwhile, Kiyemba and Musoke are accused of embezzling physical planning approval fees and demanding bribes from beneficiaries of government wealth creation programmes.

The minister said the government had received evidence supporting the interdiction and prosecution of the implicated officials, including alleged confessions and forged receipts reportedly issued to victims.

“Accordingly, it has been decided that the above-mentioned officials be interdicted to pave the way for investigations by the State House Anti-Corruption Unit and other relevant government agencies,” Kumumanya stated in the interdiction letter.

The directive comes as Kananura and Kakuru are already out on police bond after being arrested on the orders of the Minister for Local Government over the same allegations.

However, Michael Kakuru has denied the accusations, describing them as malicious and part of a deliberate campaign by certain individuals seeking to undermine district staff and influence the administration.

“We are not concerned by the investigations and remain confident that we will be cleared of any wrongdoing,” Kakuru said.