Ex-Ibanda CAO jailed 18 months over forest give away

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The Anti-Corruption Division of the High Court has sentenced the former Ibanda chief administrative officer (CAO) to 18 months in prison after he was convicted of selling government land.

On Wednesday, June 11, 2025, Abert Matsiko Mutwingire was jailed alongside district natural resources officer Tom Nuwagira, during which court ordered that they both pay a compensation of shillings 10,470,000 each to Ibanda district for the financial loss incurred in recovering the land.

The accused were charged with abuse of office after granting 13 hectares of the Ibanda Forest Reserve to the Rukokoma Mixed Farmers’ Co-operative Society without first obtaining the necessary degazettement of the reserve.

In September 2023, the two government officials were arraigned before the Anti-Corruption Court in Kololo on charges of abuse of office.

This follows their arrest by the State House Anti-Corruption Unit, working alongside the Police Criminal Investigation Directorate and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution.

The state said Matsiko, who was employed as CAO and Nuwagira committed the offence in June 2008.

In abuse of the authority of their offices, they irregularly entered into a memorandum of understanding with Rukokoma Mixed Farmers’ Cooperative Society giving away 13 hectares of Ibanda Local Forest Reserve to the said co-operative society without first obtaining degazettement of the said forest reserve.

When they appeared before Grade One Magistrate Sarah Asiimwe and denied the charges, court remanded Matsiko to Luzira Prison until October 12, 2022, while Nuwagira had been granted bail of shillings five million cash and his sureties ordered to sign a noncash bond of shillings 25 million to ensure that he reports back to court for trial.