Adolf Ayoreka | Tayari News
MITOOMA – Shocking details of why four top Mitooma district officials were arrested by the State House Anti-Corruption unit have emerged.
On March 11th 2026, four top Mitooma district officials were picked by the detectives from the State House Anti -Corruption Unit before being detained at Mitooma central police station.
They included Joanita Nakityo, the Chief Administrative Officer, Sam Tugume Karakuza, the Chairperson of the District Service Commission, Dr Sadic Mugisha, the District Health Officer and Richard Nabimanya, Senior Education Officer, among others who are still at large.
State House Anti-Corruption Unit sources familiar with the matter revealed that they received complaints from whistleblowers over rampant transactions of government jobs and extortion of money from job applicants.
The team commenced investigations into the allegations of selling government jobs and payroll fraud in the education department and misuse of up to one billion Uganda shillings in road maintenance grants at the district.
According to the preliminary findings, the ongoing recruitment exercise in the district, indicate that Joanita Nakityo, the Chief Administrative Officer has on various occasions reportedly interfered with the activities of the service commission.
It is alleged that she usurped the powers of the service commission and started scheduling interviews, selecting technical people to advise the commission, and directly influencing that some of the candidates of her preference be given high marks after the interviews, rather than on merit, which the team found to be abuse of office and influence peddling.
Preliminary investigations indicate that the District Service Commission Chairperson, Sam Tugume Karakuza, allegedly extorted between 7 and 23 million Uganda shillings from over 23 candidates with the promise of giving them jobs in the ongoing recruitment exercise.
“A list of 20 candidates, their positions, districts of origin, and the amount to be paid to secure the jobs was found stored on his phone. All these candidates were led to the home of the district service commission by one Innocent Musiime, a laboratory assistant, where they paid the said money,” one of the investigators told Tayari News.
That investigation established that some of the candidates who paid money are about to sit for their interviews, whereas those who didn’t were shortlisted and their money was refunded.
The investigators found out that the actions of the chairperson amounted to bribery, corruption and abuse of office.
According to the investigations, Dr Sadic Mugisha, the District Health Officer, engaged in influence peddling to ensure that some of the candidates were listed and passed highly with a score of 48/50 who includes Clare Twakiire and Kelvin Tinkamanyire.
Further investigations show that Dr Mugisha allegedly leaked questions and desirable answers to Dr Dalson Kananura to prepare him for interviews, an action that amounted to corruption, bribery, influence peddling and abuse of office.
Investigations revealed that in the just concluded recruitment exercise, Esther Owarimpa, a Parish Chief, extorted around Shs. 18 million from three applicants, with the promise that she would help them secure employment with the district.
According to the investigation, the Kashenshero sub-county Chairperson, who is on the run, extorted Shs. 900,000 from one Gloria Alyatuha, promising to get her a job, but she was not shortlisted. She reported her case to the unit.
“The culprit is currently in hiding, but we are collaborating with the RDC and DISO to have him arrested and charged,” an investigating officer told Tayari.
Moreso, a one Oliver Twesigye, a private citizen who is not connected to the service commission, extorted Ugx 1.6m from one Mbaga Munyauganda with the promise of securing his daughter a job as a nursing officer.
The investigators revealed that Mbaga’s daughter was not shortlisted, and Twesigye was reported to the police. On March 10, this year, Twesigye was arrested and charged in courts of law and remanded to prison till March 27, on charges of obtaining money by false pretence.
Miriam Natasha, the Public Relations Officer, State House Anti-corruption Unit, confirmed the arrest and asked the general public to be on alert and report any form of bribery and corruption to the Unit, revealing that the held officials will be transferred to Kampala before being charged in the Anti-corruption court in Kampala.
Umar Muhanguzi, Deputy Resident District Commissioner, applauded the State House Anti-Corruption Unit for coming in “to save the situation that was getting out of hand and tarnishing the image of the government.”
Muhanguzi confirmed that as the office of the RDC, they had heard about the outcry from the public, “But as you very well know, sometimes, we don’t have the capacity to investigate such matters. When we receive such a team to help us, it becomes a big relief, and as the office, we are very happy.”
He added, “To the district, I think this is an eye opener especially to those who think extortion is the new normal, as a representative of the president, I’m very happy that the unit has come to “clean” us and we are sure after this sweep, we are going to live for some good years without having such vices repeated”
Suspect refutes allegations
Dr Mugisha denied the charges, arguing that they are baseless.
“I have never extorted money from anyone, let whoever has evidence table. We know there are a lot of internal fights and politics at play, but God is on my side,” Mugisha said