More details on Amelia Kyambadde

Since we ran the story on the Principal Private Secretary to the President, Amelia Kyambadde, we have managed to piece together more facts on her from our own findings and from contributions sent in by some of our readers.

Most people who read the Radio Katwe story on Mrs. Kyambadde were surprised at how "balanced" it was. Most people think Radio Katwe is a strictly Hate Museveni platform.

A contributor wrote: "I got to know Ms. Kyambade quite well in the early 1980's, while she and her children lived in Sweden. She's a gem! She was so generous to us Africans in Sweden, that we nicknamed her 'Mama Africa'. Students and exiles from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and other places always found home at her three-bedroomed flat."

'Mama Africa' spent a lot of time helping a run-away former Mayor of Nairobi, Andrew Ngumba, set up a grocery store in Stockholm.

Amelia's mother is a great friend of the Swedish Royal family, and she has parlayed that closeness to benefit every African Amelia brought home.

In Stockholm [Editor's note: Stockholm or Gottenberg? It seems more accurate that the Kyambadde family lived in Gottenberg, not Stockhom] the family had a great friend named Anna Lindh, a young, promising City Council woman, who would later become Swedish Foreign Minister. Ms. Lindh, unfortunately, was killed by a mad man at a supermarket in 2004."

One contributor wrote in giving another opinion to Amelias public life saying, "Due to my position I was able to witness her part in a questionable affair. A personal (private) bank account in the names of "Tailor One" was maintained in Nile Bank [in Kampala]. The still strange thing about it was that the sole signatory of the account was Amelia Kyambadde. Between 1998 and late 2001 more than 27 billion shillings sailed through this account (it was so much money that Nile Bank employees even started to give themselves loans from the account without her knowledge.)"

Money used to be deposited only in cash. One of the prominent beneficiaries was [Brigadier] Noble Mayombo. The 500 million shilling cheque drawn from Standard Chartered Bank which hit the news headlines sometime back was from this Nile Bank account. It was thought that this money was being taken out of government classified accounts, for example, accounts for ISO, Ministry of Defence and the External Security Organization.

We could not establish the reasons why or the end point of the transactions for some cases but from studying the money flows some of the other major beneficiaries of "Taylor Ones" largesse included the then NRM Vice Chairman Moses Kigongo who took 140 million to pay Uganda Revenue Authority which was putting him under pressure for unpaid taxes, Museveni's nephew Kwame Ruyondo who took 40 million, Defence Minister Amama Mbabazi who took 85 million to pay off Development Finance (DFCU).

Others were Inspector General of Police Major-General Edward Kale Kaihura who took 21 million, former Local Government Minister Jaberi Bidandi Ssali who took 200 million, First Lady Janet Museveni's nephew Hannington Karuhanga who took 630 million to pay off a debt he owed Tamari of Switzerland, Susan Muhwezi (Jim Muhwezi's wife) who took 210 million which went to Gold Trust Bank.

Some of the money was used to buy foreign exchange and the contributor to Radio Katwe believes the money was later sent abroad.

Another contributor writing on March 17 said that Amelia Kyambadde has a luxurious country home at Najjeera near Ntinda, with a farm which has "hundreds" of exotic cows.

Elsewhere, reports also reaching Radio Katwe on March 17 say that the title deed for Kisozi ranch thought to be president Museveni's property was allegedly registered in the names of one Amber Kyabade.

When Museveni's son Major Muhoozi Kainerugaba learnt that the treasured "bihogo" (or inheritance in Runyankore) was not his, Muhoozi stormed into his father's presence demanding an explanation, only to get one of those blank stares which Museveni gives people when he has been cornered. The resulting row could have been the cause for Ambers brief retreat into exile to let things cool down.