Corruption: Wanted Masaka Municipal Official goes into Hiding

A day after the High Court in Masaka upheld the interdiction of the Masaka Municipal Council Principal Treasurer Sauda Namuleme, the municipal council’s cashier, David Sserubiri, has gone into hiding.

Sserubiri was interdicted together with Namuleme on March 30, 2020, over alleged embezzlement, abuse of office and causing financial loss to the Municipal Council.

Discontented, Namuleme dragged John Behangana, the Masaka Municipality Town Clerk to court, challenging her interdiction on grounds that the Town Clerk overstepped his mandate by assuming powers that can only be exercised by the Permanent Secretaries to the Ministry of Local Government and Public Service.

But the Masaka High Court Judge Moses Kawuma Kawumi threw out her application and ordered her to vacate office and allow for investigations to be conducted. The Court also gave Namuleme express orders to handover office to her assistant within 24 hours.

Namuleme and Sserubiri were allegedly operating a secret bank account in Stanbic Bank on which they have allegedly been hiding part of the money collected in form of property tax and other local levies.

The developments forced Sserubiri, who is needed to respond to inquiries of alleged embezzlement of public funds, to go into hiding.

Emmanuel Gakyalo, the Masaka Municipal Council Deputy Town Clerk confirmed that the cashier’s whereabouts are currently unknown and that he has declined to handover office as instructed upon interdiction.

Gakyalo says all their efforts to locate Sserubiri have been in vain after he stayed away from his known place of abode and switched off his telephone lines. He, however, indicated that they may involve Police to locate track him.