Bribe Allegations: Sam Kutesa Denies Being Placed on Travel Ban

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sam Kahamba Kutesa has assured legislators sitting on the Parliament Committee of Foreign Affairs that he has not been placed on any travel ban in connection with the allegations that he took a bribe.

Kutesa said this while responding to questions that were raised by the law makers at Parliament where he was presenting the Ministry’s budget framework paper for the year 2019/2020.

Led by Kawempe North MP, Latif Ssebagala, the MPs demanded to know whether indeed Kutesa was not allowed to travel to certain countries abroad for fear of arrest by the authorities in those countries.

It is alleged that in November 2017, the Justice Department of the United States of America had implicated Kutesa for successfully creating a fake charity organization with a ploy to engage in bribery and money laundering activities and indeed received the bribe.

It is further alleged that a Sh 1.8bn bribe was wired through New York to an account designated by Kutesa in Uganda by a Chinese businessman named Chi-Ping Patrick Ho, in exchange for favorable business consideration in Uganda.

On Tuesday, Kutesa told the MPs that there is no threat against him and that he is free to travel to any part of the world.

“On whether I am free to travel outside Uganda, I want to tell you members that this committee meeting was ealiear scheduled for last week but it was postponed because I was Brussels. So, I am not under any threat and I travel wherever it is to do my work,” Kuteesa said.

The Minister was in the same meeting asked to offer explanation on the issue of Ugandans who continue to be mistreated in foreign countries where they work as labourers.

Kutesa attributed the problem to labour exporting companies not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Minister informed the committee that his Ministry lacks the finances to track Ugandans working abroad adding that they are currently assisting the Ministry of Gender to make formal agreements with the Arab countries.