The Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU) has moved to block an alleged US$14 million (about Shs52 billion) government payment linked to Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports and Industrial Development (PACEID) chairman Odrek Rwabwogo, as a dispute over the committee’s legal status, access to public funds and accountability continues to deepen.
Kasambya County MP David Kabanda, who also serves as Executive Secretary to PLU chairman Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, said the organisation had asked the Ministry of Finance and other government agencies to suspend dealings with PACEID until questions surrounding its establishment, financing, staffing and accountability are resolved.
Kabanda was speaking while conveying a message from Gen. Kainerugaba following the latter’s recent declaration that PACEID is an illegal entity and an organisation that was not lawfully created.
Kainerugaba, who is also the Chief of Defence Forces and Senior Presidential Adviser on Special Operations, has accused PACEID of corruption and questioned its legal foundation and operations.
According to Kabanda, President Yoweri Museveni has constitutional authority to establish, abolish or merge government departments and agencies. However, he argued that institutions created through presidential initiatives must subsequently be placed within an appropriate legal and administrative framework defining their staffing structures, sources of funding, governance arrangements and accountability mechanisms.
Kabanda questioned where PACEID fits within that framework, arguing that the committee receives and administers public resources despite what he described as uncertainty surrounding its legal foundation and reporting structure.
“The country needs to know who appointed him as the chairman of PACEID,” Kabanda said, questioning whether Rwabwogo went through the procedures ordinarily required for the establishment and staffing of a government institution.
He also questioned who serves as PACEID’s accounting officer, who recruited its employees, who pays for its offices and where the organisation submits its financial accountability.
Kabanda further argued that although Rwabwogo was appointed by President Museveni as a senior presidential adviser on special duties, the appointment, in his view, did not automatically create an independent government organisation with powers to recruit staff and administer public funds outside established government structures.
He cited other presidential initiatives, including the Anti-Corruption Unit, arguing that even units established by the President operate within defined government procedures relating to recruitment, appointments, financing and accountability.
The PLU official also questioned PACEID’s involvement in appointing or deploying trade envoys, arguing that Uganda already has a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and diplomatic missions responsible for managing the country’s external relations.
In his view, any specialised commercial or trade appointments should be made through the appropriate government structures rather than through a presidential advisory committee.
US$14 Million Payment Dispute
The dispute has gained further urgency following allegations surrounding a US$14 million payment that PLU claims the government is preparing to make to Rwabwogo.
Kabanda alleged that Rwabwogo is in line to receive the money from the Ugandan government over a transaction involving the supply of helicopters and other materials to neighbouring South Sudan.
He questioned why Uganda’s Treasury would be required to make the payment if the alleged supplies were made to the South Sudanese government.
Kabanda further alleged that the transaction involved Thomas Farm Company Limited, a company he said is registered in Uganda and associated with Rwabwogo.
He questioned how a company whose registered business activities he described as being related to milk could become involved in a transaction involving helicopters and supplies to the South Sudanese government.
“If you supplied the government of South Sudan and you are not in the original agreement, why don’t you go to South Sudan and ask them to pay you?” Kabanda asked.
He claimed that information reaching PLU indicated that the Ministry of Finance was processing the alleged US$14 million payment to Rwabwogo and called on the ministry to halt the transaction pending clarification of the matter.
The specific US$14 million claim, the contractual arrangements surrounding the alleged helicopter supply and the legal basis upon which Uganda would be responsible for the payment could not independently be established from the material available for this report.
If confirmed, however, the alleged payment would involve more than Shs50 billion in public funds, making the matter significant from a public-finance accountability perspective.
Kabanda said PLU wanted the government to suspend dealings with PACEID and prevent government agencies and local authorities from engaging with the organisation until its legal status and financial accountability are clarified.
Background to the Alleged Payment
The dispute partly draws from outstanding payments arising from Uganda’s involvement in supplying food and other materials to South Sudan during the country’s civil conflict.
In 2018, Parliament recommended that the government pay outstanding arrears amounting to about US$41 million (approximately Shs150 billion at the time) to 10 Ugandan companies that had supplied maize and sorghum to the government of South Sudan.
The supplies followed the outbreak of a bloody civil war between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those aligned to his former vice president, Dr Riek Machar.
The 10 companies, operating under the Uganda South Sudan Grain Traders and Suppliers Association Limited, reportedly supplied maize and sorghum to 10 South Sudanese states under the Strategic Grain Reserves Suppliers arrangement between 2008 and 2010.
The supplies were valued at about US$56 million (approximately Shs205 billion at the time), with the agreement providing for payment in five instalments.
According to records cited by PLU, Rwabwogo’s Thomas Farm Limited was reportedly not among the original 10 beneficiaries of the grain-supply arrangement.
PLU now alleges that Rwabwogo subsequently claimed to have supplied helicopters and spare parts during the same period of the South Sudan conflict.
It is against this background that the organisation is questioning the alleged US$14 million claim and wants the government to halt any payment until the circumstances surrounding the transaction are established.
The allegations have not, however, been independently verified, and the precise contractual relationship between Thomas Farm Limited, the South Sudan government and the Ugandan government remains unclear from the information publicly presented by PLU.
Rwabwogo Defends PACEID
While addressing journalists on Tuesday, Rwabwogo dismissed the allegations against him and defended both the legality and performance of PACEID.
He said PACEID was established on March 16, 2022, with a mandate to open export markets for Ugandan products before being placed under the Office of the President on May 25 of the same year.
Rwabwogo maintained that the organisation’s mandate could only be terminated by the President, who created it, and said President Museveni had told him that no order terminating PACEID had been issued.
He also rejected suggestions that PACEID operates outside government structures or misuses public resources.
According to Rwabwogo, PACEID has been working on improving food safety and export compliance, negotiating transport and infrastructure arrangements, and facilitating low-cost financing for companies with confirmed export orders.
He said the organisation had surpassed its initial target of generating US$6 billion in exports, contributing to an increase in Uganda’s exports from approximately US$4.5 billion after the COVID-19 pandemic to about US$13 billion.
Rwabwogo said PACEID was now entering a second phase focused on establishing aggregation, cooling and drying centres across 18 zones to address supply constraints affecting Ugandan exporters.
He warned that uncertainty surrounding the legal status and mandates of government institutions could undermine investor confidence and affect Uganda’s ability to attract and retain international business partners.
Rwabwogo said PACEID wanted to reassure both domestic and international partners that Uganda’s markets remained open and that the organisation’s commitments remained intact.
Kainerugaba-Rwabwogo Dispute Widens
The demand by PLU follows Gen. Kainerugaba’s public declaration that PACEID is an illegal organisation.
Kainerugaba has accused the committee of corruption and threatened arrests of individuals he said were involved in wrongdoing. He has also criticised media organisations for giving PACEID officials platforms to respond to the accusations.
The military chief’s intervention has transformed what could otherwise have remained an administrative and institutional dispute into a high-level political confrontation involving senior figures within President Museveni’s inner circle.
Rwabwogo, who is married to President Museveni’s daughter, has publicly defended PACEID and its work, while the committee has rejected allegations that it operates outside government structures or misuses public resources.
PACEID was established as a presidential initiative intended to promote Uganda’s exports and industrial development. Its activities have included efforts to address constraints affecting exporters, promote Ugandan products in international markets, facilitate investment and encourage value addition.
The committee has previously maintained that its work can be verified through government institutions and private-sector companies that have benefited from its programmes. It has also dismissed what it described as false and malicious claims circulating on social media.
Land Allegations and Bagonza Detention
The confrontation has since expanded beyond PACEID’s institutional status and the alleged US$14 million payment to include claims concerning Rwabwogo’s private business interests.
Kabanda revived allegations concerning land in Nshaara, Kiruhura District, claiming that Rwabwogo initially introduced a Chinese company to President Museveni for a proposed beef-processing project but later acquired interests in the land after the project failed to materialise.
He further alleged that the land titles were subsequently changed and that Rwabwogo is now using the property for grazing.
These allegations have not been established through a court judgment or an official finding and would require verification through land records and responses from the parties involved.
Kabanda also criticised Rwabwogo over what he described as involvement in several sectors, saying the PACEID chairman has interests or activities spanning coffee, milk, media and other businesses alongside his role as a presidential adviser.
The increasingly public dispute has also coincided with reports of the detention of Matthew Bagonza, the head of the PACEID secretariat and a close associate of Rwabwogo.
Reports indicated that security personnel picked up Bagonza from his home. However, the circumstances surrounding his reported detention, including the reason for his arrest and whether any charges had been filed against him, had not been fully established in public statements.
The controversy has therefore placed the government in a difficult position.
On one side is a presidential initiative that has operated publicly since 2022 and undertaken programmes aimed at expanding Uganda’s exports and supporting industrial development. On the other are senior figures within the ruling establishment demanding that the committee’s legal foundation, finances, staffing, operations and accountability be subjected to greater scrutiny.
The central questions now revolve around PACEID’s legal status, the management and accountability of public resources associated with its activities, and the circumstances surrounding the alleged US$14 million payment linked to Rwabwogo.
Until the relevant contracts, payment records, government authorisations and other supporting documents are made public or independently verified, the allegations remain claims advanced by PLU rather than established facts.
