The Acting District Engineer for Mpigi, Kyambadde Sam, has been remanded to prison over allegations of stealing government fuel worth Shs242 million, part of the Shs1 billion Road Maintenance Grant allocated for road works in the district during the 2023-2024 financial year.
Kyambadde appeared before the Mpigi Chief Magistrate's Court on Tuesday, where he was charged with theft and abuse of office.
The charges were brought by the State House Anti-Corruption Unit (Shacu) in collaboration with the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CIID) and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP). He was remanded until August 5, 2025.
He now joins his co-accused, Sitakange Charles, who has also been implicated in the same scandal involving the theft of 21,739 litres of fuel valued at Shs242,022,500.
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According to prosecution, the duo inflated fuel estimates for multiple road maintenance projects in Mpigi Town Council and conspired with fuel station managers to bypass established control systems.
This allowed them to draw excess fuel far beyond approved limits.
Investigators allege that the suspects falsified fuel usage records and fraudulently used the registration numbers of grounded or non-existent vehicles.
One such vehicle, a tipper truck bearing the registration number LG 0002-082--out of service since 2022--was allegedly used to draw fuel worth Shs 18.5 million.
Further irregularities included the use of registration numbers belonging to unrelated government departments and private entities.
Investigators estimate that at least Shs 90 million was misappropriated through these fraudulent claims.
In a particularly glaring example of abuse, the Kyansoozi-Kampiringisa-Muyiira Road, which had been allocated Shs97 million for maintenance, was never worked on--despite district officials reporting the work as completed.
Authorities believe the funds were siphoned off with no physical work done on the ground.
This case follows a similar scandal in Busia District, where municipal officials were recently charged with mismanaging funds under the same national road grant.
According to Shacu, the Mpigi case is part of a broader investigation into systemic corruption in the handling of infrastructure grants in local governments across Uganda.
"After receiving multiple complaints regarding abuse of the road maintenance grant, we have widened our investigations into how these funds are being handled by local governments," a Shacu official said.
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The arrest and prosecution of Kyambadde and his co-accused underscores the government's intensifying crackdown on corruption in public infrastructure spending and its commitment to ensuring that development funds are used transparently and accountably.
