By Mulengera Reporters
Milk supplier Lydia Munyaruguru and Carol Arinda, both of them directors for Rushere-based Top Milk Traders Ltd, have petitioned the President calling on him to intervene and help them get paid their hard-earned Shs600m, which they say they became entitled to after supplying milk to Vital Tomosi Dairies, which is linked to Mr. Odrek Rwabwogo.
The company is into the business of collecting milk from small holder local farmers which they (at a profit) supply to processors like Tomosi. The other processors to whom they supply include Jesa, Lakeside & Amos Dairies. The anti-Rwabwogo petition was also copied to the office of Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba (the CDF) in his capacity as the PLU Chairman. That between 2021 and 2023, the company supplied 280,000 liters of milk to Tomosi, entitling them to being paid Shs364,000,000/= which allegedly was never paid up to this day.
That in July 2023, Tomosi sunk into oblivion and for two years ceased to be a going concern. Lydia Munyaruguru in her petition, which on 22nd July 2026 was stamped as duly received by Gen MK’s office, explains that during that closure period creditors like herself were contacted by a one Andrew, who was Tomosi Managing Director, to whom all their well verified delivery notes for the milk were handed and an impression was given that payment was being processed. Yet up to this day, not even a coin has ever been paid to them.
“The company Vital Tomosi reopened in 2025 and has since not paid us. I also reached the owner of Vital Tomosi Dairies Mr. Odrek Rwabwogo who kept promising to pay but nothing is forthcoming till now,” Lydia Munyaruguru lays out her case adding that three Ugandan commercial banks, from which she obtained credit to be able to supply Tomosi, have since intensified pressure on her protesting failure to service the loans she contracted.
She breaks down the pending Tomosi-induced loan obligations as follows: DFCU Shs30m, Pearl (formerly Post) Bank Shs160m, Bank of Africa Shs140m and Stanbic Bank Shs55m. She also has Sacco loans whose repayment she has since reneged upon because of Tomosi-induced vulnerability namely Ebbo Sacco Shs180m and Bessani Sacco Shs35m. The overall outstanding indebtedness, which the company directors say was all Tomosi-induced, comes to Shs600m.
“As of now, the banks have advertised the sale of the company properties in Mbarara City, Rushere Town Council and Kazo Town Council. Company owners and their children are being thrown out of their homes. Life is at a standstill,” she cries out imploring the President to reign in the authorities at Tomosi to pay up and thereby helping Top Cream Milk Traders Ltd to remain a going concern. That this will bring the badly-needed financial resuscitation for the young people who over the years have been depending on the company to eke out a livelihood.
The petitioners conclude with: “We were advised by Hon. David Kabanda to make this passionate appeal to you.” They attach their phone numbers, exhibiting readiness to corroborate their claims should the country’s fountain of honor be pleased to come to their rescue. A fierce defender of free speech, Odrek Rwabwogo has lately been very outspoken via online media platforms while calling on Ugandans to overcome and remain outspoken against human rights violations and free speech-related violations.
His online proclamations have attracted vigorous resistance from people in the PLU universe, led by Kasambya County MP David Kabanda (also Gen MK’s Executive Assistant), who keep saying Odrek Rwabwogo is a smooth operator who never pays his creditors and is therefore unfit to claim higher moral ground than Gen MK, who is their PLU National Chairman.
They have construed Rwabwogo’s outspokenness in favor of free speech as an attempt to veiledly demonize Gen MK who previously has taken to social media to justify the cracking down hard on political dissenters and media platforms like NMG which comprises of NTV, Daily Monitor newspaper and others. Critics see Rwabwogo as determined to keep projecting himself as being the adult in the room who is more credentialed to become Uganda’s next President in the post-Museveni era.
It’s therefore not hard to fathom why many social media warriors within the PLU universe have welcomed Ms Lydia Munyaruguru’s petition to the President as helpful artillery and also as something capable of diminishing Odrek Rwabwogo’s moral standing. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
