President’s Principal Private Secretary, Kamukama Appears Before Land Probe

The Principal Private Secretary to the President (PPS), Molly Kamukama is appearing before the Commission of Inquiry into land matters at the National Archives Centre.

Kamukama is appearing at the National Archives Centre, where the Commission chaired by Lady Justice Catherine Bamugemereire is currently sitting.

Lands Minister Betty Amongi while appearing before Justice Bamugemereire led commission, testified that some of the payments to from the land fund were a result of President Museveni’s directives, prompting the commission to summon Kamukama.

“In a country where we run a presidential system where executive power is exercised on behalf of the President by the Minister, it becomes difficult, where you have a directive that must be followed up by the Minister. You will have no choice but to abide by,” Betty Amongi told the Commission.

She stated that she was under intense pressure to act on the directives from the President which often informed why she in return piled pressure on officials in the Uganda Land Commission to expedite processes.

However, the Minister said that some of the correspondences were not direct requests from the President but rather written through the PPS making reference to some meetings held between the President and complainants over land issues. This was until the matter was raised to the President, Amongi said he ordered that only direct requests from him be acted on.

When this website inquired from an official from the Land Probe about Kamukama’s role, he said the investigation was in line with some authorizations of payments that were made to the Land Fund and to understand whether it was done properly.

“It’s in connection with the Land Fund. She’s going to explain some correspondences. That’s all,” Ebert Byenkya, the Lead Counsel to the Commission of Inquiry told SoftPower News over the weekend.

Asked whether Ms Kamukama had any complaints against her relating to land that she was meant to respond to during her appearance, Byenkya responded in the negative.

In her interaction with the Commission on Monday morning however, Kamukama while responding to the queries to do with the Presidential directives to the Land Fund said that she writes to accounting officers and it is up to them to process as deemed fit.