All was not at ease when Dr Gerald Banaga-Baingi, the chief executive officer of Uganda National Mining Company (UNMC), hastily stepped out of Victoria Hall at the International Conference Centre, Serena Hotel, last Thursday.
At the time, about 6:30pm, the Inspectorate of Government’s communications team had already distributed a statement of the ombudsman directing Ms Maria Kiwanuka, the UNMC acting board chairperson, to immediately interdict Dr Banaga-Baingi and the company’s Corporate and Legal Affairs Officer, Ms Lelia Bwambale, to ‘facilitate investigations into allegations of maladministration, financial mismanagement, and abuse of office’.
In the statement that this publication has seen, the ombudsman further directed Ms Kiwanuka ‘to make interim arrangements to ensure the uninterrupted discharge of their functions during the period of interdiction’.
‘Public interest demands that while investigations against an officer are ongoing, he or she should be suspended from exercising the powers and functions of the office to avoid interference with the investigations,’ the IG statement read in part.
Despite the interdiction orders on Thursday, according to inside accounts, Dr Banaga-Baingi reported to work on Friday morning and carried on his work until around 4pm when he left the office at Crested Towers in Kampala City.
Ms Bwambale had stayed away.
Dr Banaga-Baingi, the top bureaucrat at the statutory company, co-supervised by the ministries of Energy and Finance, is charged with the commercial aspects of the country’s lucrative but largely neglected mining industry.
False calm
Earlier that Thursday, he had presented during a four-man panel discussion on the country’s minerals, mining and geological resources potential.
The panel was part of the Sustainable Extractives Industry Development Programme (SEIDP) review under the theme, ‘From Resource to Transformation: Aligning the Extractives Sector with Uganda’s Qualitative Leap under NDP IV’.
The discussion was part of this year’s Renewable Energy Conference and Expo that ran from Monday to Thursday last week.
During the discussion, Dr Banaga-Baingi left nothing to imagination about what the company is currently doing, and the medium and long-term plans. The kind of stuff any interested player would have expected to hear from a CEO.
UNMC, by way of the Mining and Minerals (Amendment) Act, 2022, is mandated to hold a 15 percent free-carried equity interest in all medium and large-scale mining licences. Dr Baingi, speaking on the panel discussion, said this equity stake could even ‘go up to 35 percent’.
Currently, he said, the company deals in about 58 minerals: from precious metals including copper, cobalt, gold, iron ore, lead, beryllium, tin, titanium, tungsten, manganese, and rare earth metals, to industrial minerals such as limestone, phosphates, kaolin, and vermiculite, among others.
Dr Banaga-Baingi further spelt out that UNMC is eyeing stakes in nine medium and large-scale licences, with three already in advanced stages, from which the country could earn $1.1b (Shs4.78 trillion).
He also detailed plans for downstream operations, including mineral commodity trading, and in midstream, a national gold refinery, which, when all harnessed, with the right strategic partnerships, could fetch the country upwards of $5.9b (Shs25.67 trillion).
When asked by the moderator, as a parting question, what he would specifically focus on within the next ninety days, Dr Banaga-Baingi responded: ‘We should have quantified our [gold] resources in Kassanda and actualised an investment plan.’
The audience gave an enthusiastic round of applause as the panelists smiled and nodded in acknowledgment and exited the stage.
Another panel was called to the stage to discuss another theme.
Dr Monica Musenero, the Energy and Mineral Development minister, showed up towards 5pm, and officially closed the discussion by 6:30pm.
Mood inside UNMC
The following day, the staff whispered about seeing Dr Banaga-Baingi, a CEO who was interdicted the previous evening but still seated at his desk.
But yesterday Dr Banaga-Baingi did not show up at the office amid conspicuous silence from the board and the Ministry of Energy about announcing an acting chief executive and company secretary.
Our attempts to speak to the board chairperson, Ms Kiwanuka, were futile as she did not pick up or return our repeated phone calls since last Friday.
Dr Musenero, who declined to be drawn into discussion on the matter, said she was yet to receive any communication from the Inspectorate of Government.
Similarly, Dr Banaga-Baingi did not respond to our phone calls for comment on the matter. We shared questions via his WhatsApp number on Friday, but were yet to receive any response by press time last evening.
He was, however, quoted on Friday night by the energy news site, Deep Earth International, as saying he was ‘surprised’ by the IG probe. ‘We await the Board and minister’s guidance,’ he was quoted to have said.
The government-leaning New Vision newspaper quoted him yesterday as attributing the ongoing fallout to ‘intrigue and in-fighting’ within the company.
The UNMC is established under the Mining and Minerals (Amendment) Act, 2022, to manage the government’s commercial stakes and participating interests in the mining sector, previously carried out by private companies following the obtaining of exploration and mining licences, in alignment with the policy blueprint-National Development Plan (NDP), now in the fourth edition-as a key sector for downstream linkages for value addition.
By 1965, mineral exports accounted for 14 percent of Uganda’s export earnings behind coffee and cotton. Today, formal mining accounts for a meagre 1.3 percent of total gross domestic product (GDP) and several mineral licences remain un[der]exploited, with several well-connected individuals in government running the mining ventures.
Out of the more than 1,000 mineral licences handed out, less than 400 are active. The 2025 Auditor General’s report details that the UNMC failed to secure the government’s mandatory 15 percent equity stake in seven large mining licences ‘potentially depriving the state of significant revenue from mineral extraction activities’.
During the process of amending the Mining and Minerals Act, the officials said the new legal regime would unlock the country’s mineral sub-sector’s potential to spur the much-sought-after economic development and transformation.
Consequently, UNMC was registered in April 2024, followed by the constitution of a nine-member board in November, led by lawyer James Mukasa Ssebugenyi and Mr James Byagaba as his vice.
Other board members are Ms Kiwanuka, Ms Kevin Aanyu, Ms Agnes Alaba, Mr Alex Kwatampora, Mr Francis Twinamatsiko, Mr Wilfred Aupal, and Mr John Fisher Kanyemibwa.
How things fell apart
Dr Banaga-Baingi, who had hitherto worked as Assistant Commissioner-Technical Planning in the Ministry of Energy, where he joined from National Water and Sewerage Corporation, first took the helm of the company in an interim capacity in January 2025 amid a chaotic search process for a CEO.
He was subsequently confirmed in the position effective May 1, 2025, followed by the recruitment of other executive committee (EXCO) members, including Sameul Acidiri as operations and quality assurance manager, Ms Lorna Nkunda as the exploration and extractions manager, Ms Sandra Kaitare as the chief commercial officer, Ms Brenda Jabel as the head of human resources, and Ms Bwambale as the company secretary.
The board and the new management then commenced putting in place systems, procedures, processes, and policies for the new company in the ensuing months.
According to insiders, they even engaged extensively with the top management of the Uganda National Oil Company (Unoc), the parastatal charged with managing the state interests in the nascent oil industry.
Unoc holds a 15 percent equity stake in the upstream licences and in the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (Eacop).
Increasingly, the company is widening its footprint in the downstream side of the chain-importation and supply of petroleum products. Unoc, too, had its fair share of power struggles and bickering among its managers, but overcame the challenges.
By the beginning of 2026, the new company, UNMC, was coming apart at the seams, occasioned by a myriad of factors, ranging from disharmony between some the board and the EXCO, triggered by different working methods.
Also, the policies and processes were sketchy, with some top officials accused of influencing recruitment, tender processes, and harassment in the company, among other issues.
Conflicting visions
Other accusations included recruitment of staff without following the approved process, mismanagement of funds, micromanagement, conflict of interest, and influencing the award of mining licences.
By mid-2026, insiders were variously speaking of a ‘toxic working environment’ in the new company as conflicting visions collided in the boardroom.
But Dr Musenero said she could not comment on the matters until appraised of the preliminary findings by the IG.
In one internal memo dated July 1, 2026, one EXCO member criticised the board committee on Finance, Investment and Administration (FIA) led by the deputy board chairperson, Mr Byagaba, over questioning management about financial work plans of the company.
‘The Board of Directors is politely reminded to constantly recap the importance of complying with the Corporate Governance Water Fall that was well articulated during the recent Board Management Development session in April 2026 and ensure that the Board Committee execute duties that are under their Terms of References (ToRs) and uphold the independence and distinct roles thereof. Failure to comply with the Corporate Governance Waterfall is a very serious corporate risk that results in Corporate Governance breaches and liability,’ the official wrote.
On the FIA constantly probing the company’s employment practices, the EXCO member shot back that: ‘We wish to draw your attention to clause 11.24 of the FIA ToRs, which succinctly provides that the FIA ‘shall review and approve the company recruitment plans.’
However, on record are numerous emails in which information requested for is not related to the company’s recruitment plans. The information requested includes specific staff online application forms, categories of recruited staff, board minutes authorising staff recruitment, etc…’
The UNMC board charter stipulates that the three-member FIA is charged with reviewing the company’s annual budgets before approval by the board, and monitors budget performance through the financial year, among other roles.
The same EXCO member, separately, rebuked the board Audit and Risk Committee over incessant prying into the financial affairs of the company.
‘With regard to the company’s financial matters, the Audit and Risk Committee is responsible for monitoring budget compliance, which focuses on rules and legality, ensuring all expenditures adhere to established financial laws, organisational policies, and legal constraints. The primary goal of monitoring budget compliance involves accountability, risk mitigation and adherence to authority. Some of the key questions we are asked: Did we get the required approvals for this purchase? Is the money being spent on the exact line items the board approved?’
By the end of June, the EXCO was attempting to block the board committees altogether from convening, which aggravated the disharmony, prompting the Ministry of Finance Permanent Secretary Ramathan Ggoobi, as a shareholder ministry in the company, to institute a governance forensic audit in July.
Relationship beyond repair
As the EXCO and the board wrangled, on July 26, the board chairperson, Mr Ssebugenyi, attempted to cause a Special Board meeting to discuss the matter of the governance forensic audit, arguing that it ‘has so many effects on the company’.
The company management blocked the board meeting, according to documents seen by this newspaper, by invoking a July 1 directive by Dr Musenero ‘instructing all Boards to stay all matters with regard to strategic decisions’ pending an upcoming orientation retreat with all chief executive officers and board chairpersons of agencies in the energy sector.
Dr Musenero, who assumed office on June 10, was appointed Energy minister during the May 26 Cabinet reshuffle, succeeding Ms Ruth Nankabirwa, who was dropped and retained as senior presidential advisor.
Between July 13-17, Dr Musenero convened a five-day retreat at Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort, in Kampala, where she unveiled the ‘One MEMD’ doctrine, meant to break down the wall of institutional silos within the sector.
Accordingly, one EXCO member told off the board regarding the special sitting, saying: ‘On July 19th at the end of the retreat, the minister, in the presence of the ministers of State for Minerals and Energy, held a private meeting with the Board chairperson, CEO, and company secretary and further clearly instructed that the board should stay all matters with regard to strategic decisions, including human resource management matters,’ and further warned that any attempt to cause the special sitting would be tantamount to contempt of the minister.
Genesis of trouble
Trouble reportedly started when some EXCO members acquiesced and appeared before the internal auditors dispatched by the Treasury, while others reportedly dodged or asked subordinates not to appear before the panel.
On the morning of September 25, Dr Musenero announced the ‘resignation’ of Mr Ssebugenyi, as board chairperson, and ‘termination’ of his vice, Mr Byagaba, as part of ‘measures to address governance and management challenges affecting the company’.
Ms Kiwanuka was named acting board chairperson. ‘In her capacity as acting chairperson, Hon Kiwanuka has been tasked with providing effective leadership to the Board, strengthening corporate governance and restoring institutional stability,’ the ministry said.
Sources said the preliminary findings of the Internal Auditor General were handed over to the Inspectorate of Government for further inquiry, setting in motion last Thursday’s communication.
What law says on interdiction
Interdiction, according to the Public Service Standing Orders, 2021, refers to the temporary removal of a public officer from exercising the duties of his or her office while investigations over a particular misconduct are being conducted.
An officer who has been interdicted is prohibited from coming to work and is supposed to receive no less than one-half of salary with effect from the date of interdiction until the matter is finalised.
Following interdiction, as per the Public Service guidelines, investigations into the matter that led to interdiction should be concluded within three months for investigations that do not involve the police and court and six months for investigations that involve the police and court.
In this regard, the investigation into a matter should be done expeditiously. The principle of the presumption of innocence applies to any public official interdicted and undergoing an administrative investigation.