Bugisu Resettlement Audit Flags Potential Shs60bn in Inflated Claims

A rigorous door-to-door verification exercise in the Elgon sub-region has exposed major discrepancies in beneficiary lists for the government’s landslide resettlement programme. Led by Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, the audit has revealed inflated entries that could have potentially accounted for nearly Shs60 billion in irregular public expenditures.

The ongoing exercise spans across Namisindwa, Bududa, Bulambuli, and Sironko districts. Officials are cross-checking names against National Identification and Registration Authority records to verify identities before families receive a compassionate resettlement package. Under the current scheme, each eligible household is allocated Shs18 million to purchase land in safer areas and establish new homes.

Preliminary findings shared by Nabbanja indicate severe inflation in the initial registers. In Namisindwa District, only about 700 households qualified out of 2,016 initially registered. Similarly, Bududa recorded roughly 1,100 verified households against an initial list of 3,200. In one instance, a village with just eight residents had submitted 58 names.

The Prime Minister blamed the discrepancies on manipulation by some Gombolola Internal Security Officers, who allegedly included relatives or accepted bribes to add ineligible names. The unmatched gap of 3,416 entries between the registered and verified households across Namisindwa and Bududa represents a potential financial exposure of approximately Shs61.5 billion.

Namisindwa District Chairperson Ema Bwayo supported the intervention, noting that the original 2016 lists were compiled exclusively by OPM officials and security officers without local leadership input. Nabbanja warned that inflating beneficiary numbers threatens to derail efforts to protect families genuinely at risk of landslides. Read more about this development on Nile Post.