Uganda VIPs Face UK Arrest

AllAfrica- Ugandan government officials traveling to the United Kingdom on diplomatic passports now face increased scrutiny and possible arrest after a presidential advisor was charged with money laundering last month.

Ananias Tumukunde, President Museveni's advisor on Science and Technology, was arrested in the United Kingdom on April 2 and charged with money laundering and being in possession of inexplicably too much money, according to British law.

A UK Home Office official told our source in London that more stringent measures would now be taken while handling Ugandan officials holding diplomatic passports.

"This is not an isolated or one-off incident, we now suspect most of these diplomatic passport holders from Uganda and there [will be] considerable scrutiny in all their dealing on the UK territories," the official said.

But the government remains adamant about its laissez-faire policy on diplomatic passports despite the arrest of a second Ugandan official in London in less than one year.

The Minister of State for Internal Affairs, Matia Kasaija says it is "alarmist" to review procedures under which diplomatic passports are issued "simply because a government official has been arrested abroad."

Ananias Tumukunde faces four counts of money laundering and being found in possession of £38,000, £12,000 and £53,000 respectively, contrary to sections 327 (2A) (b) (ii), 328 (3) (b) (ii) and 329(2A) (b) (ii) of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 in the United Kingdom.

Section 327 (2A) of the Act which deals with money laundering states that a person commits an offence if he/she conceals criminal property; disguises criminal property; converts criminal property or transfers criminal property.

According to the Act, concealing or disguising criminal property includes concealing or disguising its nature, source, location, disposition, movement or ownership or any rights with respect to it.

Under section 328, a person entering the UK is supposed to disclose to the authorities the amount of money in his possession.

Our sources in the UK say that Tumukunde did not disclose before hand that he was in possession of large sums of money which totals to UShs 360.5 million. Neither did he give a convincing explanation as to where the money was from and where it was headed, heightening suspicion that he was engaged in money laundering.

The Act was partly necessitated by the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States, which forced the UK to put in place measures to fight terrorism and its possible funding sources, such as money laundering.

On April 5, 2008 Tumukunde was arraigned before the Horseferry Road Magistrates in London but his application for bail was rejected on grounds that he did not present credible sureties.

One of the rejected sureties, we understand, was Fox Odoi, a legal advisor to President Museveni. By press time Odoi was reportedly still in London, pursuing the matter.

Tumukunde is scheduled to appear in court tomorrow [May 2, 2008] to seek bail for the second time. If convicted on all four counts he faces a possible 56 years in jail as each count carries a maximum penalty of 14 years.

Jotham Tumwesigye, the chairman of the Immigration Board which supervises the passport control department told The Weekly Observer this week that it was "unfortunate" that someone carrying a diplomatic passport had been arrested in the UK.

But he added that this development did not warrant changes in the way diplomatic passports are issued. Tumwesigye said: "It is true we should be concerned [about the arrest of a government official] but anybody including myself can commit crime. Does that mean we should stop giving passports to those who deserve them because we fear they will commit crime? It does not work that way."

Tumukunde's arrest comes less than a year after another Ugandan in possession of a diplomatic passport, Rose Birungi, was sentenced to 12 years in jail in the UK after she was convicted of drug trafficking.

Birungi, said to have been an aide to Gen. Salim Saleh, the Minister of State for Microfinance--was also the Minister of Information in Toro Kingdom.

Undiplomatic passport

Currently, the Immigration Directorate administers four types of passports-- diplomatic, official, ordinary, and East African passports.

Ordinary passports-- dark blue in colour-- are held by ordinary citizens while every Ugandan is entitled to an East African passport, used only within the East African Community.

Official passports- green in colour-are held by a certain category of important people in the country. These include; chancellors and vice chancellors of private universities, heads of government departments, MPs, leaders of the main religious groups in the country, members of permanent commissions, or any other person authorised by the minister of Foreign Affairs.

But the more coveted ones are the diplomatic passports--red in colour-- which give the holder unrestricted entry to almost every country.


Under the law, people entitled to hold these passports include:

government ministers and their spouses, Foreign Service officers and their spouses and children below the age of 18 year staying with them abroad, the head of the Public Service, the Chief Justice, Justices of the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, Chancellors and Vice Chancellors of State Universities, the Governor and deputy Governor of Bank of Uganda, recognised traditional and cultural leaders, the Speaker and deputy Speaker of Parliament, Permanent Secretaries, Chairpersons and Vice Chairpersons of Permanent Commissions.

Unlike other types of passports, the diplomatic passports are issued upon recommendation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the holder is supposed to surrender it upon relinquishing the position he/she holds.

Outside these categories, the law empowers the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to recommend anyone to be issued with a diplomatic passport, provided there is justification to do so.

Illegal access

But increasingly, it appears, many undeserving people are gaining access to the diplomatic passport under unclear circumstances.

The Weekly Observer has learnt that most of these people are on intelligence assignments and are given these passports usually under express orders from the powers above.

For instance, in 2004 the former Director General of the External Security Organisation (ESO), David Pulkol, revealed that government had given Micheal Ezra-- a sports philanthropist-- a diplomatic passport to enable him carry out duties on behalf of government.

"The circumstance under which that passport [of Ezra] was processed was to facilitate a meeting for some citizens to return to the country," Pulkol told a journalist then.

Other individuals, we have learnt, get the diplomatic passport, on the recommendation of high-ranking government officials. These people could include relatives of ministers or political aides such as Birungi, who ordinarily would not be entitled to one.

Indeed at the time of Birungi's arrest, government denied having given her a diplomatic passport. James Mugume, the acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs minister, said then: "Security persons are also concerned about how she got the diplomatic status."

Yet more often than not, it is such people who have ended up being caught at the wrong end of the law on foreign land.

MP Loi Kiryapawo (Budaka), chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Parliament, told The Weekly Observer that after the deliberations on the national budget, her committee would task government to explain the increasing abuse of the diplomatic passport by Ugandan officials.

She said: "They have to tell us [why Ugandan officials with diplomatic passports commit crime]. We have to tighten [the procedure of obtaining these passports] by seriously screening those who qualify to get them."

Asked whether they rigorously scrutinise applicants for diplomatic passports, Tumwesigye says their role stops at issuing them not determining who qualifies to get one.

"That is a matter of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," he said.

Tumwesigye could also not tell the exact number of people in possession of diplomatic passports, although it is estimated to be in hundreds.

Efforts to get a comment from Mugume or any other senior official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were futile. Mugume's secretary said her boss was busy in what appeared to be endless meetings.