Africa-Press – Uganda. Corruption at Entebbe International Airport is no longer just a moral disgrace—it is now a national security threat. If terrorists identify and exploit the corrupt among us, the consequences could be catastrophic.
My “friend,” the Security Minister, General Jim Muhwezi Katugugu—you once sent Emmanuel Katsigazi to arrest me from Paul Muwanga’s house in Entebbe. But when you found out I was there out of youthful curiosity and not political subversion, you let me go.
I later wrote about this in The New Vision article, “Why Did Gen Muhwezi Release Me and Other Members of Obote’s Relatives” (August 19, 2019).
So tell me now, are you going to come after me again for daring to point out that terrorists are likely identifying corrupt individuals at Entebbe airport to facilitate their operations?
Or, will you thank me and let me go, because—forty years since that arrest—I’m older, wiser, and motivated only by a desire to protect the fragile peace this country enjoys?
I am ready to be arrested if I must, but do I not deserve thanks for stating the obvious?
Why?
Because any Ugandan who truly loves this country must be gravely concerned about the runaway corruption and its direct implications for national security. I am one of those Ugandans.
Yes, I may hold dual citizenship—Ugandan and British—but like the Jews who insist on being buried at Mount Olive, my bones will one day be brought back from the UK and laid beside my mother’s grave in Uganda.
Meanwhile, as our security agents nap through duty, both local and international terrorists—and their well-funded sponsors—are not. They are identifying who is who in the airport, police, judiciary, parliament, the Bank of Uganda, and other key institutions.
Most importantly, they are mapping out officials’ lifestyles, their tastes, and their price tags. Those addicted to money and sex—like many of the corrupt—are prime targets.
This is not a difficult task. In Uganda, corruption begins at the family level and cascades up to state power. Was it not only six months ago that senior officials at the Bank of Uganda and the Ministry of Finance diverted millions of dollars meant for international debt repayment into their private accounts in London and Japan?
Isn’t a former Ugandan High Court judge currently serving jail time in the UK for people smuggling and modern slavery? And wasn’t she aided by our own Deputy High Commissioner in carrying out this international crime?
For as little as $1 million—or even less—terror sponsors could easily bribe some corrupt Ugandan officials, who would gladly sell their own mothers for Shs50 million, to sneak a bomb onto an international aircraft.
Alternatively, they could facilitate the “legal” importation of deadly weapons, including drones, under the cover of trade or politics.
Either scenario would have catastrophic consequences for Uganda.
I felt someone needed to spell out, in the starkest terms, the deadly cost of our deeply entrenched corruption. We are sleepwalking toward disaster—and not the kind that a press conference or security reshuffle can avert. This is the kind of national tragedy born from blind greed and institutional decay.
Terrorists are not just looking for weapons. They’re looking for weak links—people with access, who will trade national security for a quick bribe.
In 2004, Equatorial Guinea narrowly escaped a coup after international mercenaries tried to smuggle weapons through South Africa and Zimbabwe. In 2022,
The Gambia foiled another coup attempt linked to both local and foreign actors. More recently, in May 2024, the DRC prevented an attempted power grab involving Congolese exiles and US-based collaborators. All these plots were tied to unchecked corruption in those countries.
Uganda is not immune.
In my view, the corrupt individuals at Entebbe airport and other strategic institutions pose a greater threat to Uganda’s peace and stability than the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) or Dr Kizza Besigye—the former liberation hero turned opposition leader—now indefinitely detained in Luzira without bail or trial.
We must face this truth now, before it is too late.
Source: Nilepost News
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