Memoirs never fall apart: Of how HIV funds loot returned 10yrs after to haunt minister designate Kaboyo

KAMPALA, Uganda: President Yoweri Museveni Tibuhaburwa Kaguta appointed Alice Kaboyo to the Luwero Triangle ministerial docket in the just released cabinet list. But her woes started when she appeared before the parliament committee charged with vetting cabinet nominees for approval of her appointment.

Legislators on the committee immediately reminded her of her past conviction on the charges of graft. The charges stemmed from the looting of GAVI donated money that was supposed to help in treatment of HIV and malaria some years ago. The missing money led to the prosecution of the ministers of health at the time who included Capt. Mike Mukula, as well as Alice Kaboyo, then an aide in State House.

Upon arraignment before the courts of law, Kaboyo pleaded guilty to the charges of pocketing five hundred and twenty million Uganda shillings and she was sentenced to a fine of twenty million Uganda shillings.

She had received the money purportedly to hold advocacy conferences. By the time of her conviction, she had refunded two hundred million of the money she received as a presidential aide yet she was no longer one. The 2012 conviction on her own plea of guilt has returned to haunt Kaboyo ten years later.

When she appeared before the vetting committee, Kaboyo fought in vain to have her appointment approved by the legislators sitting on that committee. Her explanation that her lawyer misled her into pleading guilty to the charges yet she did not commit them, was not bought by members of the vetting committee. The no nonsense legislators threw her out