A Ugandan minister is in jail after being charged with the theft of thousands of iron sheets meant for the impoverished Karamoja communities in the northeastern part of the country.
Mary Goretti Kitutu Kimono, the minister for Karamoja Affairs was arrested in connection with the longstanding corruption scandal that stained Yoweri Museveni’s cabinet.
Kitutu appeared in court on Thursday and pleaded not guilty.
According to Daily Monitor, she was denied bail and will spend Easter in the infamous Luzira prison.
Last month, she asked for forgiveness for the mismanagement of the distribution of metal roofing sheets while appearing before a parliamentary committee.
According to the BBC, at least 10 other senior government figures are alleged to have received some of the stolen corrugated iron.
These include the vice-president, the prime minister, the parliamentary Speaker, and other ministers, according to the inspector general of government.
Some of them told a parliamentary committee investigating the corruption scandal, involving 14,500 missing iron sheets, that they had not asked for them.
The prime minister has apologized and urged other officials to return the sheets. Speaker Anita Among told the house that she had returned the ones she had received.
One minister was recently forced to remove some from the roof of his goat shed, local media reported, the BBC reports.
Karamoja is home to pastoral nomads vulnerable to frequent droughts and deadly cattle raids in a remote region bordering Kenya and South Sudan.
