Mbarara CAO Muhwezi arrested over corruption and property mismanagement, two more top officials on run

Mbarara- The Mbarara District Public Accounts Committee (PAC) led by Herbert Kamugisha, the Chairman of the committee made a resolution by ordering the arrest of the District Chief Administrative Officer David Muhwezi following  the findings related to corruption, abuse of Office and mismanagement of the district properties.

During the PAC meeting that was held on June 16.2026 in the District council hall Kamukuzi, the committee grilled the CAO alongside his subordinate, the District Land Surveyor for several hours on numerous queries regarding irregularities in the allocation of public lands at Kamukuzi hill. The committee found out that the Accounting Officer (CAO) has been allocating plots of land to government institutions and other agencies without following due procedures.

During the meeting, it was found out that CAO was allegedly conniving with some officials from Mbarara District Administration through a corruption attempt to allocate lands without even council minutes, including tempering of evaluation. According to Chairman Kamugisha, each acre was valued between UGX 30M and 40M, which is more less compared to the value of the land at Kamukuzi hill. Kamugisha therefore made a directive that all evaluation quotes be revised.

According to the findings, the most contentious issue was rotating around Basajjabalaba’s KIU heart Institute project, which was allocated about 9 acres. It is alleged that to make this deal achieved towards the allocation of that land, a handshake of millions of money was translated to facilitate or compromise the CAO, former LC5 Chairman, former Speaker and the district councilors.

Other irregularities were also detected in the allocation of other pieces of land to Institutions including Uganda Management Institute, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Makerere University Business School, the Office of  the Solicitor GeneralPolice Barracks, the PPDA, among others.

Following the above mentioned findings, the committee led by Kamugisha made a directive and ordered the CID Police Officer to escort the CAO Muhwezi to the police in Bwizibwera police station to record a statement where he was first detained before he was later transferred to Mbarara Central Police Station, where he spent the night. Muhwezi was charged with three accounts of corruption, abuse of office and mismanagement of property.

The committee also resolved that the CAO should step aside and his deputy take over to avoid interference with the investigation, until they are over.

The committee also made a directive against the Chairperson of Procurement

Contracts committee and Senior procurement Officer to report themselves to police and record statements for running out of the PAC meeting as they dodged their queries that had a lot of issues.

“After getting all these references, we shall make our report following our resolutions and are taking matters up, even up to the President of this country . We want the valuation of  the lands which have been allocated be revised, how can you evaluate an acre of land at Kamukuzi hill between UGX 30M and 40M, thats a joke, Mbarara District is losing a lot of money in local revenue, we cannot allow that to happen here again” said Kamugisha, Chairman PAC Mbarara District