The State House Anti-Corruption Unit, working in collaboration with the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), has arraigned the Acting District Engineer for Mpigi, Sam Kyambadde, on charges of stealing fuel meant for road maintenance works.
Kyambadde appeared before the Mpigi Chief Magistrate’s Court and was charged with theft of 21,739 litres of fuel valued at shs242 million.
The fuel was part of a Shs 1 billion Road Maintenance Grant allocated to Mpigi District for the 2023–2024 financial year.
He was remanded until August 5, 2025.
He joins his co-accused, Charles Sitakange, who is already facing similar charges in connection with the same scam.
According to investigators, the two engineers orchestrated the theft by inflating fuel estimates required for various road works, then colluding with fuel station operators to illegally extract the excess quantities.
The fuel meant for active road projects was siphoned off using a network of fraudulent tactics, including fake accounting and forged vehicle usage records.
To conceal the fraud, the suspects reportedly used registration details of grounded vehicles—such as a tipper truck (Reg. No. LG 0002-082) that has been non-operational since 2022—to withdraw fuel worth over shs18.5 million.
Additionally, vehicles belonging to other departments or completely unrelated to the district were also fraudulently listed as part of the road works fleet to justify fuel withdrawals, leading to further loss of about shs90 million.
The scandal deepened when investigations uncovered that a key road project—Kyansoozi-Kampiringisa-Muyiira Road, budgeted at shs97 million—was never implemented, even though district officials claimed the works had been completed.
“This is a clear case of outright theft and deception. The fuel was never used for its intended purpose, and yet the officials went ahead to report the project as successfully completed,” a source close to the investigation said.
This latest arrest in Mpigi comes just weeks after officials from Busia Municipal Council were charged in court over a similar fuel scam, also involving misuse of funds under the Shs 1 Billion Road Maintenance Grant.
The State House Anti-Corruption Unit has confirmed that investigations into the mismanagement of the 1Bn Grant are ongoing in several other local governments following a surge in public complaints about systematic abuse of these road maintenance funds.
The Unit has vowed to intensify oversight on how these grants are utilized and to ensure that those who divert public resources meant for infrastructure development are held accountable.
