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Ms Maria Natasha who speaks for State House anti-Corruption Unit (Shacu) on Thursday confirmed to the media in Kampala that President Museveni had written a letter directing her boss General Henry Isoke to arrest big-headed Police Constable Alex Katungi of the environmental police operating in areas surrounding Lweza, Kajjansi, Kigo etc.
Katungi had over the years built a reputation of being a ruthless and feared operative. The Shacu publicist says that a group of victims from whom Katungi had been extorting bribes came together and petitioned the president who got angry and directed Isoke to apprehend him.
Museveni preferred to use the incorruptible Isoke after confirming earlier claims that no one else would dare touch or arrest Katungi because of the powerful connections and a network of high placed officials he had built in police.
His godfathers in police had threatened to punish anyone in police who dared touch him. The president’s investigations indicated that Katungi had been sharing the proceeds of his extortionist operations with big people in the force who in return ensured that he was protected and untouchable. Katungi has a low rank of police constable but has been wielding a lot of powers in Uganda police force.
He could even defy his superiors in police and even cause their transfer. Whoever stood up to him and questioned his dealings got recalled to Naguru for redeployment elsewhere. This enabled Katungi, who owns hotels and expensive properties along the Entebbe expressway, to become damn rich in such a short time.
He is currently one of the richest men in the Uganda police force and even has a residence in the upmarket Buziga, which many of his superiors can only dream of.
Heavily armed and commanding a large group of rogue-minded junior operatives, Katungi has been raiding construction sites and shutting them down while declaring the site a protected wetland and such activities illegal.
They raid the site, declare everything illegal, confiscate construction materials and also cage such developers for torture and to walk again to freedom, one has to part with big sums of money or else risk being locked up for an indefinite period. Those who pay up get cleared to carry on and those who protest get into big problems.
Many complaints had been lodged against Alex Katungi before the authorities but everyone feared to act for fear of reprisals from his godfathers in security for whom he has been collecting billions of shillings annually.
But its the victims of torture that sealed Alex Katungi’a fate. Over the years these grew into hundreds. And its these who recently managed to clandestinely access the president who had their claims verified and documented. Because he is going for elections, Museveni couldn’t stand having senior police officers protect someone who tortures people on the eve of a major election of 2026.
After listening to some of the victims and getting confirmation that many torture and extortion cases had been reported against Katungi without anyone at police doing anything to protect the voiceless ordinary people, Museveni immediately communicated to general Isoke directing him to have Katungi arrested.
This was done on Monday and Katungi was harvested like a grasshopper as the DPP processes his file. Natasha says he will be arraigned in court and remanded to prison as prosecution into his criminal acts starts.
One of the big torture cases that touched the president was that of Mr. Oscar Omara, a NWSC staff who on 11/November 2024 was tortured and put on gun point after he turned up at PC Alex Kayungi’s home and questioned the reconnection of the water supply which had days earlier been disconnected for non-payment of bills. The water meter at Buziga was in the names of Fred Basiima.
The president was angry and concerned that the assault case SD/13/11/11/2024 which NWSC had opened up against Alex Katungi was never worked upon, prompting top management to order Kampala water general manager Mahmood Lutaaya to write to the IGP inquiring about why nothing was done. Lutaaya wrote to the IGP on 14th February 2025 but still nothing was done to Katungi who continued to be on rampage.
OTHER Examples
There are many other Alex Katungi victims whose stories and mistreatment moved the president to tears. Some of these are colleague police officers like detective constable No. 33719 Farooq Nabwiso who the president established lost his job and was criminally rwmoved from the police payroll after he stood up to Katungi’s interests in sand mining operations at a place called Kaga in Wakiso.
Nabwiso tried to stop sand mining by people Katungi had cleared but lost the battle badly when superiors at Naguru sided with Katungi and instead deleted him from the payroll. Preliminary findings by the president’s investigators indicate that this happened in 2022.
Gilbert Napok is another victim whose story moved the president. He was locked up and physically assaulted along with pastor Kagga Ronald and that they only got released after parting with Ugx1,000,000/=.
On another occasion, Napok was locked up and tortured with his business associate Grace Kisame only to regain their freedom after parting with Ugx800k. They were detained for many days at Natete police station at the instigation of PC Katungi.
Another victim was Peter Ssenabulya who was worked on via torture together with his wife Maria Nabukalu. He told the president he was tortured, beaten and humiliated before his employees by the Katungi squad.
That Katungi pushed them into his car boot and vowed to make them permanently disappear never to be seen again. The torture was too much that Nabukalu miscarriaged and lost her pregnancy. This was after being kicked directly in the stomach.
Jjuko Musa & Sserunkuma Ibrahim are father and his young son who were beaten and tortured at their construction site for failing to raise the extortion sum that had been required of them to pay in order to be allowed to continue constructing their house on what PC Alex Katungi had declared a wetland. The president has established this was torture which the laws of Uganda prohibit under the prohibition of torture Act.
Wakiso district local government’s assistant environmental officer Nicholas Mugabe also suffered the Katungi wrath. He asserts that Katungi routinely gets money from people doing any public works in Kajjansi part of Wakiso be it a public or private project.
He says even people doing government work are never spared by Katungi as long as they don’t part with money. Personally he says he was targeted with death threats for years and was asked to part with Ugx2,500,000/= in order to be let free.
Mugabe reported to Kisubi police post and later on CPS Kampala but wasn’t helped. The police men on duty advised him to stop reporting at their stations because they feared to get into problems with Katungi and his backers in top echelons of Uganda police force.
Mugabe informed the president through his personal statement that he one time moved to close down Lweza clays Ltd’s mining site for failing to comply with statutory requirements only to be confronted by Katungi who used the Kajjansi town council mayor to warn him of dire consequences if he didn’t back off.
Kato Dennis Ssali says that men working on construction sites in the area always live in fear of Katungi because he is always moving around with escorts and you can only be safe if you positively respond to the group members’ extortionist demands. He confessed to have parted with Ugx1,500,000/= one time as a bribe to get peace with squad members.
John Baptist Mutebi’s personal statement indicated to the president that the squad members threatened him until he surrendered 50 percent of his own land in Kibibi for Katungi’s men to stop persecuting him.
Mutebi says that later on when the house Katungi built on the land was demolished by authorities, he pressurized him to refund him with Ugx60,000,000/= to recover what he lost as a result of the demolition.
Mutebi made it clear to the president he lives in fear unsure of what Katungi might do to him next. He wants the president to give him personal protection.
The state house anti corruption unit Maria Natasha says that a group of Shacu detectives will be investigating PC Alex Katungi on many other things including the circumstances under which he was recruited into Uganda police force. Did he respond to an advert or it was through nepotism and connections?
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