Uganda Road Corruption Arrests Expose a Shs430 Billion Compensation Scandal

Uganda’s Works Ministry arrested two of its own staff during a field inspection on August 26, 2026, the latest in a string of Uganda road corruption arrests tied to a compensation scheme now valued at more than Shs430 billion ($115 million). Works Minister Fred Byamukama ordered the arrests while touring the 72.5-kilometre Kisubi-Nakawuka-Nateete-Kasanje-Mpigi road corridor west of Kampala.

The State House Anti-Corruption Unit took ministry valuer Isaac Akampa and surveyor Elijah Sekito into custody on site. Investigators accuse the pair of conniving with land brokers to inflate compensation values for property along the road reserve, including one acre of land worth roughly Shs35 million ($9,400) that was assessed at up to Shs2 billion ($538,000).

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How the Uganda Road Corruption Arrests Unfolded

The scheme went beyond inflated land prices. Investigators found the government had paid out Shs893 million for graves along the route, some allegedly fabricated by cementing patches of ground and planting crosses so claimants could bill for exhumation, transport and reburial costs.

Other people reportedly built shells of houses directly in the road’s path, then registered themselves as project-affected persons to collect compensation for structures built purely to trigger a payout. The compensation bill for this single road now stands at roughly Shs430 billion, more than the Shs340.5 billion originally budgeted for the entire project, construction included.

Byamukama says the conflicts run deeper than any single scheme. Some ministry staff, he has told reporters, personally own buildings along the same roads currently being valued for compensation, a direct conflict of interest he links to past cases with unusually high valuations. He has also gone public with attempts by officials to bribe him during ministry inspections, saying he rejected the offers and reported them internally.

The Cost: Billions Lost to Inflated Road Compensation

The Nakawuka road is not an isolated case. Byamukama has told Parliament the country may be losing as much as Shs50 billion (about $13.4 million) every three months to corruption across the road sector, through inflated contracts, altered designs and collusion between officials and contractors.

The Busega-Mpigi Expressway illustrates the scale. Contracted in 2016 at roughly Shs547.5 billion, the 23.7-kilometre toll road’s projected cost has since climbed past Shs2 trillion, a jump investigators are now examining for signs of deliberate design changes used to justify the increase. On the Masaka-Kyotera-Mutukula highway, Byamukama says only 23 percent of the work was complete with a year left on the contract when officials attempted to extract a further Shs150 billion from government.

The scrutiny extends beyond roads. The same inspection drive has surfaced exorbitant per diem claims and fake employees on the payrolls of schools and hospitals, suggesting the road-sector schemes are one branch of a wider pattern of public-fund abuse across local government.

The Fix: Purges, Audits and a Presidential Directive

President Yoweri Museveni removed six officials from the Works Ministry and the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority in July, citing what he called “massive corruption” that delayed road projects and inflated costs, according to allAfrica. Among those dismissed were Engineer Steven Kitonsa, the ministry’s Engineer-in-Chief, and Ronald Olaki, project manager for the Masaka-Kyotera-Mutukula highway.

The July purge followed months of scrutiny. The Auditor General had already flagged irregularities on the Busega-Mpigi Expressway before Museveni acted, documenting the kind of design changes and cost escalations that investigators are now treating as evidence rather than explanation.

The Inspectorate of Government has since opened a value-for-money audit of the Busega-Mpigi Expressway. Inspector General of Government Justice Aisha Naluzze Batala said her office has spent two weeks interviewing officials involved in the project’s planning, with a second phase to check whether money already spent matches the work actually completed.

The crackdown has widened beyond the Works Ministry. A separate minister, Balaam, has interdicted 110 local government staff over misused public funds, part of what local reporting has described as several ministers now working in parallel to unwind the same networks. For the Nakawuka road itself, government has said compensation for verified occupants will begin within weeks, and a Chinese contractor has been ordered to complete tarmacking by December.

Prosecutors have not yet announced charges against Akampa and Sekito. The ministry says more arrests are possible as the value-for-money audits continue.