Inspector General of Government (IGG) Aisha Naluze has led a team of officials in the arrest of two staff members from the Jinja Ministerial Zonal Office (MZO) over allegations of extortion.
The suspects include the office surveyor, Francis Wangoli, and his graduate trainee, Jovan Woniala. Their arrest followed complaints from members of the public who accused MZO staff of demanding illegal payments to expedite land title processing, warning that failure to pay often results in delays that can last years.
As part of ongoing investigations, Naluze and her team conducted a spot check at the MZO offices on Wednesday evening. During the visit, several complainants alleged the existence of middlemen operating within the office who collect bribes on behalf of government officials.
The complainants further alleged that Wangoli kept a bag used to collect extorted money from applicants, with payments reportedly starting from as low as 10,000 shillings, later shared among staff.
On sighting the IGG team, Wangoli and several staff members from the survey department reportedly fled their offices, leaving behind secretaries who claimed they were off duty.
This prompted the Director of Ombudsman at the IGG’s office, Savio Kakooza, together with available MZO staff, to search the survey office, where a suspected money bag was reportedly recovered. Kakooza then contacted Woniala, who arrived and denied possessing any money or knowledge of a smaller bag found inside the backpack.
He was instructed to empty the bag, during which an identity card belonging to Wangoli and a sum of money were allegedly recovered. Wangoli later appeared and claimed ownership of the bag, stating that he had sent Woniala to retrieve it from his car.
He further claimed the bag contained about 700,000 shillings. However, upon counting, officials reportedly found an additional 380,000 shillings, bringing the total to approximately 1.08 million shillings.
Due to contradictions in their statements, both Wangoli and Woniala were arrested to assist with investigations into allegations of extortion by residents seeking land titles. The duo was taken to the Jinja regional IGG office for further questioning.
Kakooza raised concern over what he described as syndicated corruption in the land title acquisition process, where middlemen are allegedly given access to sensitive applicant data and use it to extort money from applicants. He said such practices undermine effective public service delivery and delay access to land services for ordinary citizens. URN