By Eye Media Reporter | Kampala | June 10, 2025
The Anti-Corruption Division of the High Court has handed jail sentences to two top former Ibanda District officials after they were found guilty of illegally allocating government forest land to a farmers’ cooperative society.
Matsiko Mutwingire Abert, the former Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of Ibanda, and Nuwagira Tom, who served as the District Natural Resources Officer, were each sentenced to 18 months in prison. The duo was convicted of Abuse of Office after they irregularly granted 13 hectares of the protected Ibanda Forest Reserve to Rukokoma Mixed Farmers Cooperative Society, without following the required legal process of degazetting the reserve.
The court also ordered each of the convicts to refund UGX 10,470,000 to Ibanda District as compensation for the financial loss the district incurred during efforts to recover the land.
The judgement was issued by the Anti-Corruption Court sitting in Kampala, in what legal experts have described as a stern warning to public servants who manipulate their offices to illegally dispose of public property.
According to prosecution, the land in question was still part of a gazetted forest reserve and any allocation should have followed formal degazettement procedures approved by Parliament and the Ministry of Water and Environment.
“This conviction is a signal that the judiciary will not tolerate impunity by public officers,” said a source at the Inspectorate of Government.
