Daily monitor which is Uganda’s most respected newspaper, says that the arrest of trade ministry permanent secretary Geraldine Ssali was ordered by the president. But the biggest question is why would the president do that yet Geraldine had grown into one of Uganda’s invincible permanent secretaries simply because he chose to make her powerful.

Sometime last year, parliament twice investigated her which appeased a city tycoon who didn’t like her for standing in his way to make money. The first one was about Ssali’s refusal to spend 10bns renting office space for the ministry at Sudhir Ruperalia’s Kingdom Kampala building instead of renovating farmers house where the ministry is based.

In what pleased the president, she considered renovation of the three floors, which cost less than 1nb, to be cheaper than spending 10bn renting Kingdom Kampala for 5 years. The MPs, led by Mpaka Mwine, crucified her saying she hadn’t followed the procurement rules even though it’s true her move saved money.

Ssali also stood up to thieves at the trade ministry and ministers who wanted to push her into corruption deals, which the MPs cursed her for saying she was being proud and arrogant. Some of the thieving ministry officials she chased away were said to be victims of witch-hunt by her.

Having known and fully appreciated what her powers as PS were, Ssali also stood up to bullies who would come to the ministry pushing her to endorse dirty deals-and these were out baying for her blood. One of such bullies has quietly been lobbying CID to put her into some hot soup. The MPs recommended her removal but president Museveni over ruled them and kept her at farmer’s house.

Like they did with the 10bn rental deal, over which some power brokers at the ministry had already pocketed kickbacks, the MPs once again came back to get her-and this time around they used cooperatives compensation deals which began when the late Amb Onen was still PS; Geraldine was still working in her Majesty’s government in London as of that time. In what seemed like biased and just being out to get Ssali, the MPs blamed her for things which happened in 2019 when she hadn’t yet joined the ministry as PS.

The process to compensate cooperatives for the losses made during the liberation wars of 1979 and 1980s of NRA started long time ago when Amb Onen was still the PS at trade. When he died, undersecretary Grace Choda became the Ag PS up to August 2021 when Ssali was posted there. Between 2016 and 2023, 120bn was given to the ministry by the finance ministry to compensate cooperatives.

There were two verification committees one inter-ministerial and another one based at the trade ministry. Each cooperative union put in their claim indicating what they lost in war and the work of the two committees was to verify the claims. MPs crucified Ssali because she depended on the ministry internal committee more and not the inter-ministerial one. The MPs should have but didn’t present any verification figures to counter what the ministry’s internal committee did.

Most likely there was no literature about the inter-ministerial committee ever getting down to do any work whose report outcomes ought to have been compared with what the ministry PS relied upon.

One wonders why none of her predecessors is being locked up yet they handled the process and the paying out of billions since 2016 long before Ssali became PS in August 2021. The compensation process has been on for 7 years and Ssali has only been in charge for 2-3 years. This explains why some think she has personally been targeted because of who she is.

Bwavu Mpologoma cooperative society is one of those which caused her problems. It was founded in 1950s by the Masaka catholic church leaders to mobilize Catholics to learn saving schemes but it grew into a powerful cooperative to which her own grandfather Adolf Kiwanuka belonged. Obote I developed disagreements with the Catholic church and in Masaka’s case, the UPC government felt terrified by Bwavu Mpologoma which was helping the church to grow its influence. Obote through his minister John Kakonge of cooperatives arbitrarily wound up Bwavu Mpologoma and all its property and assets were taken without compensation.

Some members went underground and others accepted Obote government advice to join other cooperators to form Masaka Cooperative Union following the ban in 1963. When all cooperators were asked to put in their claims showing what they lost to Uganda’s turbulent past, the Catholic Church leadership in Masaka worked with a few surviving cooperators and put in their claim showing assets that were lost.

This was long before Geraldine came in at trade ministry; but their claim was disregarded and were advised to claim under Masaka cooperative union even when their loss as Bwavu Mpologoma preceded formation of MCU. When she became PS, Geraldine determined to correct this injustice and gave an ear to Bwavu Mpologoma and that is how cooperators put in their claim of 101.5bn though when money became available under her time, Geraldine paid them 2.75bn only. Even when the priests who participated in getting the money are still alive and confirm receipt of the same, the MPs claimed this was a deal by Geraldine.

To the MPs, MCU, through which a minister and some opposition MPs from Masaka have been chewing cooperators’ cash, should have been the one to receive this 2.75bn plus the 7bn that Geraldine gave actually them as Masaka Cooperative Union (MCU).

Apart from the 3.5bn which MP Mike Mawanda and other MK project promoters are said to have hijacked from Buyaka cooperative union/society and used to promote their movement politics, this 2.7bn payment to the Catholic Church-linked Bwavu Mpologoma is the major reason why Geraldine has been locked up.

What has shocked many observers is why many other big people-ministers, MPs and former MPs that were implicated in the parliament report aren’t being touched and it has to be Geraldine, a young mother who is barely 50. There are many law firms and Kampala lawyers who the report shows took the billions and nothing is being done to them so far as yet.

The observer newspaper reported a full list of all these in its Wednesday edition and nobody is going after them. There are also ministries with bigger scandals in which accounting officers have been implicated and nothing is being done to them because they aren’t Geraldine Ssali; a well-intentioned civil servant whose only mistake is lack of an effective godfather in government!

An impression had been created she was invincible because she had support of the president and his brother Salim Saleh. This became the case especially after Museveni ruled against PSST Ramadan Goobi and put Ssali back to office as PS. Monitor newspaper says she has a direct line to Salim Saleh and this is why everyone is wondering why Museveni could order the arrest of Ssali as was reported in monitor newspaper of Friday.

Why would the president order the arrest of his loyal cadre Geraldine whom he had previously praised for being hands-on over the way she saved the 10bn the ministry was under pressure to pay for 5 years rent at Sudhir’s building? One only hopes that the Daily monitor lied in its reporting because it’s very unlikely the president would do such a thing after making Geraldine invincible by protecting her against Goobi and parliament which wanted her out of the PS job. She had continued making the president happy including refusing proposals to spend 2.5bn buying new luxury cars for ministers at farmer’s house after one of them knocked cattle and had his official car written off.

Meanwhile, the Masaka Catholic Church leadership according to reports is determined to refund the 2.7bn their Bwavu Mpologoma is supposed to have received because they don’t want ordinary Baganda and Catholics to die cursing that their Geraldine had to rot in Luzira prison simply because he facilitated their compensation.

The matter is said to be so sensitive, Museveni’s unpopularity in Geraldine’s homeland of Masaka might deteriorate even further in 2026. There is anger among the Masaka Catholic church that there are clear thieves who real ate the cooperators money even from within Masaka itself who aren’t being touched simply because they have powerful MP and ministerial connections.