Officials from the State House Anti-Corruption Unit have arrested one of the Mukono South Parliamentary candidates on allegations of obtaining money by false pretense shortly after he was nominated to participate in the 2026 General Election.
Mubarak Ssekikubo, who has been serving as the Chairperson for Nakisunga Sub-county in Mukono District on the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) ticket was arrested on Wednesday after being nominated as an Independent candidate for Mukono South MP seat.
He’s allegedly one of the Mukono District local government officials accused of selling jobs to desperate unemployed applicants.
The media coordinator at the State House Anti-Corruption Unit, Mr Emmanuel Bunnya said Ssekikubo’s arrest came after he severally snubbed their summon to record a statement over allagetions of obtaining money by false pretense, impersonation and bribery in what has come to be known as the Mukono district job-for-sale racket that saw the district service commission boss, Eng. Dr Godfrey Kisuule and the district speaker, Betty Nakasi Hope arrested under similar circumstances in July 2025.
Ssekikubo allagedly received money from different individuals seeking government employment, promising to influence the recruitment process. His arrest follows a wider recruitment scam that marred the Mukono district recruitment process.
Last week, Ronald Mugerwa Saaku, the Probation and Welfare Officer at Lugazi Municipal Council was arraigned before the Mukono Chief Magistrate on similar charges and remanded until October 21, 2025.
Documents seen by this reporter indicate that between January and June 2025, Saaku allegedly conspired with Dr Wataba Saadi, the Lugazi Municipal Medical Officer and Ssekikubo to defraud Dr George William Mukisa of Shs38 million.
Ssekikubo has been on the wanted list until his arrest on October 22, 2025.
‘We’re determined to investigate corruption to the core, acting on the repeated warnings by the president to all the district service commissions and government agencies to stop selling government jobs but have kept a deaf ear,’ Mr Bunnya warned.
Before his arrest, Ssekikubo denied allegations of engaging in corruption after his name was cited in several scandals. He dismissed the allegations as baseless and politically motivated.
‘Have never been summoned by the State House Anti-Corruption Unit and all the allegations are baseless as they lack evidence of me receiving a bribe from any job applicant,’ he said.
The Mukono district chairperson, Rev. Dr Peter Bakaluba Mukasa suspended the district service commission, citing many anomalies in the recruitment process where different commissioners were freely asking for bribes from applicants.
Ms Nakasi decried the practice of selling government jobs and questioned how her name ended up on the list of suspects before calling for investigations to be expedited.
‘We’re into a political season and we’re being witch-hunted by our opponents. So, we want the Anti-Corruption Unit to expedite the investigations and have our names cleared,’ she said.