Kampala, Uganda: President Yoweri Museveni has fired his principal aide-de-camp (ADC) and several other senior State House officials in a sweeping anti-corruption purge, admitting that his office has become “clogged” and “dead” due to entrenched graft.
In a candid revelation over the weekend, Mr Museveni disclosed that people have been paying as much as Shs30 million to intermediaries just to get their letters and requests delivered to him.
He immediately ordered the principal ADC’s removal from State House, pointedly instructing that he did not want to see him “anywhere in the building.”
The move marks Museveni’s strongest acknowledgment yet of a “systemic rot” within his inner circle, where citizens increasingly bypass official channels and instead seek access through his family members and close aides.
Key Incidents Behind the Crackdown
Information exclusively obtained by DailyExpress indicates that extortion had become the norm of the day at State House. Mr Museveni, in the viral video, confirmed ongoing arrests linked to an elaborate bribery scheme where officials demanded millions from people seeking presidential attention.
Another limelight of the axing is linked to The Robert Mugabe Koch Saga: In 2023, then-ADC Lt. Col. Robert Mugabe Koch was sidelined without the President’s knowledge after returning from studies abroad.
A shocked Museveni intervened, sacking top Special Forces Command (SFC) officers and reinstating Koch, but this week’s dismissal ends that chapter, with Koch reportedly redeployed as commander of the UPDF 503 Division.
It is also alleged that in the previous State House Investigations, several high-profile arrests were made, including Lt. Vicky Munaaba, who oversaw correspondence; Rose Nalunga, a private secretary accused of leaking classified information; Corporal Moses Kebba, a switchboard operator; and businessman Michael Christopher Ayeranga.
Trust and Access Crisis
Museveni further lamented the growing public distrust in State House channels, saying even senior officials like Marcella Karekye defer citizen requests to his daughter, Natasha.
Although he stopped short of declaring he had “drained the swamp,” his latest orders send a clear message: the President expects the “dust to be swept away” within his own corridors of power.
The reshuffle is seen as both a political and moral move aimed at restoring integrity to State House, long dogged by public allegations that access to the President often comes at a steep price.
(Daily express)