Africa News Broadcast 
Uganda minister for Karamoja affairs Mary Goretti Kitutu was remanded on Thursday over stealing corrugated iron sheets meant for the poverty-stricken Karamojongs in the northern part of the country.
Kitutu, who has been a minister since 2016, becomes the first senior minister in the 37 years of President Yoweri Museveni’s regime to be jailed while holding a cabinet portfolio. She is the second minister in the Museveni era to be jailed while in office. In 2017, a junior minister was arrested for soliciting a bribe of $1,385 from an investor.
Charged with her brother, Kitutu will spend Easter in jail and return to court for a bail hearing on Wednesday, 12 April. The minister was arrested on Tuesday afternoon after turning hostile by refusing to respond to questions from members of a parliamentary committee investigating the issue. She was detained until yesterday’s presentation in court.
Iron sheet scandal
The iron sheet scandal has dominated local news in Uganda since February, following a revelation by an anti-corruption agency in the president’s office that iron sheets meant for the people of Karamoja had been diverted and shared among several high-ranking government officials.
Vice President Jesica Alupo, Speaker of Parliament Anita Among, who ranks third after the president and vice president, Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, Finance Minister Matia Kasaija, and First Deputy Prime Minister and former speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga were recipients, among others. They are under investigation.
The iron sheets and some goats meant to be distributed to the poor in the cattle-rustling Karamoja region were funded under a USh30bn ($8m) supplementary budget last year. The government initiative was instituted in an effort to alleviate hardship in the region known for its abject poverty and cattle rustling.
The charge in the case of iron sheet theft is just the beginning, said Jacquelyn Okui, the spokesperson of the office of the director of public prosecutions, who spoke after the minister was sent to jail. She said more cases against officials involved in the scandal will be sanctioned. “This is not selective prosecution,†she said.
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