Sitakange Charles, the Assistant District Engineer in charge of Civil Works in Mpigi, has been charged with theft after allegedly stealing thousands of litres of fuel meant for road construction. The arrest was made through joint efforts by the State House Anti-Corruption Unit (@AntiGraft_SH), the Criminal Investigations Directorate (@CID1_UG), and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (@ODPPUGANDA). He was arraigned before the Mpigi Chief Magistrate’s Court and is now remanded until July 22, 2025.
According to the charges, Sitakange and his boss, Kyambadde Sam—the Acting District Engineer who is currently on the run—stole 21,739 litres of fuel valued at over UGX 242 million. This fuel was part of the UGX 1 billion Road Maintenance Grant disbursed for the financial year 2023–2024, meant to improve roads in Mpigi Town Council.
Investigations revealed a clever but criminal scheme: the engineers inflated the amount of fuel needed for various road works, then conspired with fuel station managers to withdraw the extra fuel. Instead of being used for actual road work, this fuel was stolen. To cover up the scam, they used vehicle registration numbers from grounded or non-functional vehicles. One such example was Tipper Truck LG 0002-082, which had not been operational since 2022 but was falsely used to account for over UGX 18.5 million worth of fuel.
The fraud didn’t stop there. The engineers reportedly used registration numbers of vehicles belonging to other departments, and even some not owned by the district, to claim more fuel. Up to UGX 90 million was lost through these false claims. In addition, one of the roads listed for maintenance—Kyansoozi – Kampiringisa – Muyiira Road, which had a budget of UGX 97 million—was never worked on at all, yet district officials falsely reported the project as completed.
This case in Mpigi follows a similar one in Busia District just a month ago, where municipal council officials were also charged for abusing fuel funds under the same Shs 1 billion grant scheme. According to the State House Anti-Corruption Unit, more investigations are underway in other districts following numerous complaints of misuse of these funds.
The arrest of Sitakange and the ongoing hunt for Kyambadde highlight growing concerns over corruption in local governments. Authorities have vowed to pursue all those involved and ensure that funds meant for public service are protected.
