Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba
HABARI DAILY I Kampala, Uganda I Having been accused of conspiring to supply military-grade weapons to one of Mexico’s most dangerous criminal outfits, Micheal Katungi, who was the Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU) Commissioner for External Affairs, has been stripped of his duties.
“I have decided to remove Michael Katungi as Commissioner External Affairs of PLU. He is also removed as a member of our central Committee,” said Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the PLU Chairman.
Katungi, in association with Peter Dimitrov, a Bulgaria-based arms dealer, Elisha Odhiambo Asumo, a Kenyan national and Subiro Osmund Mwapinga from Tanzania, were accused of supplying arms to the cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG).
Gen Muhoozi, who is also the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), who posted on X, formerly Twitter, said that although he has not received any formal information or notification from any official authority regarding Katungi’s indictment, he takes all allegations of this nature very seriously and believein the importance of due process and the presumption of innocence.
According to the United States Justice Department, the trio tried to obtain end-user certificates (EUCs) and delivery verification protocols (DVPs) in exchange for bribes and kickbacks.
It said that Katungi, in various meetings with drug cartels in Cape Town, South Africa and London, UK, allegedly offered to acquire fraudulently acquired EUC and DVPs from various countries in Africa in exchange for 2 per cent commission off each arms deal.
The weaponry included machine guns, rocket launchers, grenades, night vision equipment, sniper rifles, anti-personnel mines, and anti-aircraft weapons. The indictment indicates that the defendants allegedly believed that the CJNG intended to use these weapons in furtherance of the illegal trafficking of large shipments of cocaine into the United States.
In 2021, Katungi contested for a member of parliament for Butemba County in Kyakwanzi district as an independent candidate but lost. He also lost in the recently concluded National Resistance Movement (NRM) primaries.
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