Uganda’s Minister of State for Finance Planning Amos Lugoloobi has been remanded for allegedly misappropriating iron sheets meant for less privileged people in the northeastern region of Karamoja.
Arraigned before the Anti-Corruption Court, the minister, according to the prosecution, illegally received 700 pre-painted iron sheets meant for people in Karamoja between July 2022 and March 2023.
He allegedly used some of the sheets to roof his goat farm shed. The Ugandan anti-corruption unit said the minister allegedly diverted the materials.
The minister, however, denied dealing in suspected stolen property. The corrugated iron sheets were earmarked to help people in the rural areas of Karamoja.
Lugoloobi has been remanded in Luzira prison until April 20 - the date set for further hearing of the case. The minister, through his lawyers, had applied for bail on grounds of ill health but it has not been granted.
He is the second minister to be remanded for alleged corruption within two weeks in the East African country.
Earlier this month, the minister in charge of Karamoja development, Mary Goretti Kitutu was charged with several offences, including "loss of public property" and "conspiracy to defraud" over diversion of iron sheets.
Kitutu was accused of diverting 14,500 roofing iron sheets "to her own benefit and to the benefit of third parties."
She pleaded not guilty. She was remanded in custody for several days before being granted bail.
Karamoja, in a remote region in Uganda bordering Kenya and South Sudan, is home to pastoral nomads vulnerable to frequent droughts and deadly cattle raids by warriors who use illegally acquired guns traded across porous borderlands.
Security personnel have been conducting a disarmament program in the region and the roofing materials were meant for distribution to youths to persuade them to abandon criminal activities.
Prosecution of senior government officials is rare in Uganda. The authorities had warned officials who knew they had benefitted from the allegedly diverted building materials to return them.
