By Mulengera Reporters
For years Susan Kasingye, a high-ranking policewoman, powerfully served as the Special Presidential Advisor (SPA) in charge of Police Affairs (whatever that meant) and was always where the President would be, just in case the big man desired to introduce her to some people or direct her to follow up on something.
She executed and handled many of the big man’s sensitive errands and assignments, which at some point created an impression she could easily be targeted by rogue elements in the region desirous to bump off such a powerful Museveni official in return for local and global publicity.
The President (who was always full of praises for her often introducing her to reporters at press conference and to even investors and his ministers as his powerful aide) went as far as authorizing the procurement of an armoured SUV vehicle for Kasingye before whom even superiors in the Uganda Police Force bowed.
Many desiring to plead their case before the President would be advised to engage Susan Kasingye (mother to Ugandan businessman Justus Kashoma’s children) so that she gives a favourable recommendation about them. Yet that isn’t all.
Kasingye, who hails from Nyabushozi and is a law graduate from both UCU and LDC, also became the go-to person for CEOs and heads of government parastatals desiring job contract renewal or even increased funding from the treasury, in case the same required Presidential intervention.
Gratefully, she never used that powerful position to torture fellow citizens, direct the locking up of people’s children in case they criticized her on social media and to generally commit human rights violations or even grab poor people’s land. This partly explains why when things recently went south for her at State House, there were no celebratory media headlines to celebrate her fall from grace to grass.
Having been terminated in July (for reasons which we don’t have to go into here), Kasingye quietly eased out of State House and safely returned to Police Headquarters at Naguru for redeployment elsewhere.
Because she never used her closeness to the President to badmouth or destroy colleagues in the Uganda Police Force, her superiors at Naguru had no problem deploying her to Kololo-based Interpol where she has since joined the likes of Fred Enanga and others.
Sources say that Kasingye has easily adjusted, accepted her new reality, smoothly adapted and fit in well; peacefully co-existing with colleagues because she never used her State House credentials to mistreat or undermine any of them during her hey days.
M7 REPLACES HER:
The very plush and heavily-fortified private Naguru office which used to be Kasingye’s command centre (having been specifically procured for her by State House Comptroller on the express instructions of the President) has since been allocated to young corporate lawyer Rebecca Atwine who the President recently appointed to replace her.
Atwine is officially designated as the Special Presidential Advisor (SPA) on Anti-Corruption and is already calling shots at that Naguru private office. The office has been beefed up through the deployment of several lawyers, SFC escorts and investigative detectives from Dr. Tom Magambo-led CID. These are all working under Atwine who previously had a brief stint at Gen Henry Isoke-led State House Anti-Corruption Unit (SHACU).
She had for years been the President’s secret whistle blower who kept reporting to Gen Museveni dubious procurement transactions and contracts (in hundreds of billions) at the public institution she used to work at. The President gradually got confidence in Atwine after many of her whistle blower information ended up being corroborated and confirmed by investigators from SFC and other agencies. Indeed, heads eventually rolled as the big man from Rwakitura purged those who had engaged in corruption dealings at that institution.
The President was fascinated by Atwine’s patriotism and courage to keep accurately documenting and quietly reporting to him such corruption dealings. He then determined to deploy her in some sensitive role. He wanted her to help amplify his broader fight against corruption especially in his new term of government (2026-2031) during which a decision has been made to make fighting graft a top priority.
Insiders say that First Lady Janet Museveni, a great influence on the President, has insisted that the war against corruption becomes re-energized and be approached with the same zeal and consistency as was the case with HIV-Aids in the early 1990s.
Janet has actually signalled readiness to personally lead that renewed war against corruption, with Gen Museveni promising (during her private birth day ceremony at Migera Nakasongola a few months ago) to deliberately recruit deeply spiritual young people to constitute the fighting force and building blocks on which his wife will rely to offer that much-awaited leadership.
Knowledgeable sources say that Rebecca Atwine falls under that category of young cadres. During the Migera event, Museveni made it clear it would be ideal if such officers are lawyers by training, energetic, deeply spiritual and God-fearing. Those who know her well say that Atwine, an active worshipper who sometimes prays at Pastor Tom Mugerwa’s Mutundwe Church, does posses some of these credentials.
She is a lawyer from Makerere University plus LDC and has been in legal practice for roughly 10 years. She has also previously served as a young lecturer and Governing Council Secretary at one of Uganda’s top Universities. She is also clandestine in her operations and hates being so much in the limelight, just like Susan Kasingye.
Having taken up her job with youthful energy and enthusiasm, Rebecca Atwine has already been inquiring into impunity and public corruption scandals at the instigation of the President. Even victims of work place corruption, at several government MDAs, have already been quietly reaching out to report acts of impropriety in the hope that she can bring that to the attention of the President in her daily briefs to him.
She actually reports to the President directly; ever updating him on the progress being made on investigations referred to her office by him and those autonomously reported to her by aggrieved whistle blowers at several public institutions. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
