The Minister of State for Microfinance and Small Enterprises, Hon. Haruna Kasolo, has ordered the Kyotera District Police Commander (DPC) Hassan Musooba to arrest the former PDM Community District Officer (CDO) of Kyotera district, identified as Lutaya, and Secretary of the PDM Sacco in Nkenge parish, Emmanuel Kayondo, for extortion of money, bribery, and misappropriation of PDM funds in Kyotera district.

Kasolo made these remarks on August 30, 2024, in Kasaali Town, Kyotera district, after a village meeting at Nkenge Health Centre II, where he had gone to evaluate the implementation of the PDM funds.

However, he was shocked when the locals told him about the crimes that the Secretary of the SACCO in Nkenge parish, Kayondo, and CDO Lutaya had committed.

According to the locals, Kayondo and Lutaaya extorted money and collected bribes from them to get the PDM funds; others were made to sign for the funds but did not get them; others were made to pay for certification of their groups, while others were made to sign for the funds and given a very small portion of the PDM funds.

One of the victims, Rose Nakalema, revealed that she gave Kayondo a bribe of Ugx 500,000 after she was threatened to be taken off the list of PDM beneficiaries. She, however, revealed that she has never received the funds to date.

The second victim, Ambrose Bulega, disclosed that Kayondo and Lutaya made him sign for Ugx 1,000,000, but he was given only Ugx 400,000, and when he asked them what had happened to the rest of the money, they lied that it had been taken by the bank.

Following these confessions, Kasolo ordered the Kyotera DPC and Chief Administrative Officer Muhammad Nfemetikiza to arrest the two culprits so that they can pay back the money; failure to do so, they will be charged with fraud, bribery, and misappropriation of the PDM funds.

Kasolo added that no government official was supposed to collect money for the certification of the groups created for the PDM funds and that the only person who had to handle the registration and stamping of the documents of the formed groups by the people was the LC I Chairperson.

’’If you signed for any PDM funds but were given less than what you signed for or nothing at all, you should let me know right now just like the rest of your colleagues have done, because we need to change what is in the government records and write the correct information,” he said.

Kasolo further called upon the Kyotera CAO Nfemetikiza and DPC Musooba to collect statements from the victims as a manhunt for the two culprits is going on.

Kayondo, who was in the meeting, managed to stealthily escape, and Lutaya survived because he was recently transferred to another district.