President Museveni last week ordered three senior officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Uganda Police Force on forced leave over a widening Shs31 billion CCTV bribery scandal that has since threatened to expose deep-rooted corruption at the heart of one of the country’s most sensitive national security projects.
The directive, delivered through a sharply worded presidential letter, signalled not only a dramatic escalation in the government’s anti-corruption posture but also growing alarm within the State House over allegations that powerful officials turned a flagship crime-fighting initiative into a marketplace for extortion and kickbacks.
The officials affected include Lt Gen Joseph Musanyufu, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Internal Affairs; Mr Aggrey Wunyi, the undersecretary of the Police Force; and Assistant Inspector General of Police Felix Baryamwitsakyi.
Their six-month forced leave is intended to pave the way for investigations into claims that officials within the ministry and police demanded bribes from a local technology contractor in exchange for payment linked to the maintenance of the National CCTV and Command Centre system.
At the centre of the scandal is Dealan Associates Ltd, a Ugandan-owned company reportedly contracted to maintain the country’s sprawling CCTV surveillance infrastructure, one of Mr Museveni’s most prized security investments following a wave of high-profile assassinations and urban crime incidents in recent years.
In the President’s letter, the company allegedly completed its work but was denied payment after refusing to yield to demands for kickbacks allegedly channelled through middlemen connected to ministry and police officials.
The revelations have cast fresh scrutiny on Uganda’s expensive surveillance programme, a project repeatedly defended by the government as critical to combating terrorism, violent crime, and organised criminal networks.
Instead, the scandal now threatens to reinforce long-standing public perceptions that corruption remains deeply entrenched within the country’s security institutions despite repeated presidential warnings and anti-corruption campaigns.
Over the years, the Uganda Police Force has consistently ranked among the country’s most corruption-prone public institutions in national integrity surveys, with President Museveni himself publicly rebuking officers over bribery and abuse of office.
What makes the latest development particularly striking is the President’s unusually direct intervention.
By ordering senior technocrats and security officials aside before formal prosecution or disciplinary hearings, Mr Museveni appears keen to project decisiveness and reclaim control over a scandal that risks embarrassing his administration and undermining public trust in State security projects funded by billions of taxpayer shillings.
Yet the forced leave order also raises difficult questions about accountability, procurement transparency, and the hidden power networks that continue to thrive within our country’s sprawling security bureaucracy.