The Anti-Corruption Court has convicted Francis Ateng, the former Principal Assistant Secretary at the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development in the Lira Zonal Office, on eleven counts including abuse of office, forgery, uttering false documents, fraudulent procurement of a land title, and conspiracy to commit a felony.
Ateng was found guilty of fraudulently facilitating the sale of land belonging to the Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) to private individuals.
He has been remanded until November 7, 2025, when the court will deliver his sentence.
According to court proceedings, between January and March 2018, Ateng, while serving at the Ministry of Lands in Lira, abused his authority to defraud URC.
He allegedly orchestrated the issuance of a special certificate of title, supervised the subdivision and allocation of the land, and worked with brokers to sell the parcels to individuals bypassing all lawful procedures for disposal of government property.
Investigations revealed that Ateng and his co-conspirators forged the signature of the then URC Managing Director, which they used to authenticate fake transfer documents in the illegal land transactions.
One of his co-accused, Mr. Ocen Joseph, had earlier pleaded guilty to similar charges and was sentenced to two years in prison.
The conviction stems from a 2022 directive by President Museveni, who tasked the State House Anti-Corruption Unit, in collaboration with the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), to probe and prosecute individuals involved in the illegal sale and encroachment of Uganda Railways land across the country.
