Asst. Engineer remanded in Mpigi Fuel theft

Mpigi, July 31, 2025. An Assistant District Engineer from Mpigi, Kyambadde Sam, has been arraigned before the Mpigi Chief Magistrate’s Court on charges of fuel theft.

He has been remanded until 05/08/2025.

Kyambadde joins his co-accused, Sitakange Charles, in the ongoing case. The two are alleged to have stolen 21,739 liters of fuel, valued at UGX 242,022,500/=, during the Financial Year 2023-2024.

This fuel was reportedly intended for road works under the UGX 1 Billion Road Maintenance Grant in Mpigi Town Council. The alleged method involved inflating fuel requirements for various road projects.

They are accused of then conniving with fuel station managers to bypass control measures and draw excess fuel.

To conceal the theft, the engineers allegedly accounted for the irregularly drawn fuel using registration numbers of grounded vehicles.

For example, Tipper Reg No. LG 0002-082, reportedly out of use since 2022, was allegedly used to account for fuel worth 18.5m.

Furthermore, they are accused of using vehicle numbers from other departments, and those not belonging to the district or involved in road works, to fictitiously account for the stolen fuel. This alleged scam led to a loss of up to UGX 90,000,000/=.

Investigations also revealed that the Kyansoozi – Kampiringisa – Muyiira Road, estimated to cost 97,000,000/= and planned for implementation that financial year, was reportedly not worked on at all.

The money for this project was allegedly stolen, despite district officials reporting its completion.

This case follows a similar investigation in Busia district, where Busia Municipal Council officials were charged last month for similar fuel abuses under the 1Bn Grant. Similar investigations are currently underway in other local governments.

This marks a new focus by SH-ACU on the 1Bn Grant, following numerous complaints of mismanagement across various local governments.