Police in Mityana district arrested two school principals for covering their classrooms and other school buildings with sheet iron believed to be destined for the Karamoja sub-region.
The materials were illegally shared among ministers.
Police sources told this publication yesterday that an unknown number of sheet irons have been seized from Kitovu Primary School and Bongole Primary School, both located in Malangala subdistrict.
The detained principals are Ms. Christine Nabukera from Kitovu Primary School and her counterpart Enid Kunihira from Bongole Primary School.
The schools are located in the Busujju constituency, where the local MP is Mr. David Lukyamuzi Kalwanga.
Mr. Lukyamuzi sounded quite annoyed and told this publication that he had absolutely nothing to do with the suspected sheets of iron.
“I’m green about the Karamoja iron sheets. I don’t know how they got into my constituency! Someone is trying to frame me and dumped the iron sheets in my constituency because of too much pressure,” Mr Lukyamuzi said.
As the Karamoja sheet scandal rages and the government begins taking officials implicated in the scandal to court, those involved in the investigation are reportedly panicking.
Wamala Region Police Spokesperson Ms. Rachael Kawala neither confirmed nor denied the arrest of the two school principals.
“I have yet to get this report so I can get the exact details,” Ms Kawala said.
But the MP said he had received information that the principals had allegedly been beaten by the police.
“During the arrests, the teachers tortured them in front of the students because the teachers refused to speak. When the police came to arrest the headmaster, people in the other schools that received the iron sheets ran away for fear of being arrested,” he said.
Mr Lukyamuzi said his people called him yesterday and said the police had searched their schools for the iron sheets. “I told my people to go and record explanations of how they got the iron sheets,” he said.
Where the police crackdown is taking the rest of the country is unclear. Many of the ministers and MPs involved in the scandal claim they used the iron sheets to support causes in their respective constituencies. They are now potential suspects as the chief of public prosecutors opens cases against suspects.
So far, Minister for Karamoja Affairs Mary Goretti Kimono Kitutu (alleged mastermind behind the scandal) and her brother Micheal Naboya Kitutu are in custody on various charges.
www.monitor.co.ug
https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/national/two-head-teachers-arrested-over-roofing-classrooms-with-karamoja-iron-sheets-4198716
