Equity Bank Billions Heist: “Let Him Go…” DPP Tells Police to Let Loose Kenneth Onyango as CEOs Samuel Kirubi and Anthony Kituuka`s Comfort Grow Thinner

Police on Friday inevitably kowtowed to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP)`s instructions to let go of Equity Bank – Uganda`s recently resigned Executive Director in Charge of Commercial Banking, Kenneth Onyango. This stance, for reported want of incriminating evidence, The Investigator can authoritatively report.

Instead, the DPP advised detectives to widen their investigations scope. We understand that for them to successfully charge Onyango, more big shots with whom he is believed to have committed the alleged UGX65Bn swindle must be beside him in the dock. For the knowledgeable such fraud investigations can only yield results only if the right targets in suspects have been achieved.

Sources close to the investigation reveal that Onyango’s release stems from the inability to pin him down without implicating higher-ups, specifically former Managing Director Samuel Kirubi and his replacement Anthony Kituuka. The scandal, dating back to 2018, inescapably implicates these top executives in a web of deceit and fraud that has rocked the nation.

“Police can never successfully implicate Onyango in the absence of his immediate bosses like former MD Samuel Kirubi and the current boss Anthony Kituuka, given the fact that the investigations are stretched as far back as 2018 when Kirubi was still in charge,” offered the source. Kirubi was relieved of his duties two years ago, and was replaced with Anthony Kituuka.

Kenneth Onyango was released Friday

Back then, on November 20^th 2022 in these pages, we broke the story of how the Kenyan national had been ordered to clean his desk and leave office with immediate effect. These orders were also relayed to two senior managers, Faith Lapula, the Manager in charge of Recovery, and Enock Kakumirizi, the Collections Manager at the time. That the affected officials were attached to the larger credit section of the Bank, echoed a signal on what could have been the matter – hence the current situation.

The public have for long been knowledgeable of several outcries regarding this financial facility`s variances in loans given out to their clients. Into pages of this website lies several stories of how Samuel Kirubi and his management connived with city businessman Sudhir Ruparelia and fraudulently sold him two prime properties belonging to the now Late Peter Kamya of Ssimbamannyo.

However, at the time of his departure, Kirubi and his subordinate `accomplices` had their plight driven via issues to do with bad loans and discrepancies surrounding the same. Intelligence had it that his sacking was partly sparked off by the Country`s regulatory body, Bank of Uganda via an audit. Kirubi had three loans he was supposed to write off as instructed by BOU, before he could handover. This stance, because the same loans had already gone bad under his watch and will.

Sources at the time mentioned the three big loans as that of a prominent but controversial city businessman John Bosco Muwonge, which staggered around UGX47Bn. Muwonge had reportedly bought most of his siblings Godfrey Ssebalamu and Nabukeera`s properties using most of the money from Equity Bank and some from Bank of Africa. The other loans were that of Mogas, whose digits were also in Billions, as well as another of a Matugga-premised Company.

Enters Kituuka

Upon his departure, Kirubi was swiftly replaced by Anthony Kituuka who had previously served as the Executive Director for Regional Subsidiaries from 2014 to 2016. Kituuka is a career banker with over fifteen years of experience. He holds an MBA in Oil and Gas from Middlesex University, London and a Bachelor’s Degree in Statistics and Applied Economics from Makerere University.

Not Safe: Anthony Kituuka (Courtesy Photo)

Hailed as a seasoned banker with the impressive track record above, Kituuka has found himself drowning in the mess left by his predecessor. Despite his credentials, he has struggled but failed to clean up the systemic sleaze that plagues Equity Bank, leaving the institution and its clientele in turmoil. But alas! Kirubi`s mess was too voluminous for him to clean. So much so, he can instead soil himself deeper into it.

Now, we understand that for police to ably charge Onyango, Kirubi and Kituuka must be lined ahead of him as key suspects. For starters, Onyango and five others namely; Julius Musiime, Erina Nabisubi, Fred Ssemwogerere, Wycliff Asiimwe and Crescent Tumuhimbise are accused of messing up with billions of dimes meant for stock loan product. This product is designed to provide vital credit support to businesses of all sizes.

The conundrum faced by police, Equity Bank and its proprietor James Mwangi, is that all loans in this category are vetted and approved by the Bank`s five-member Credit Committee. Therefore, the unfolding scandal implicates not only Onyango but also key figures within the bank’s Credit Committee, chaired by the Managing Director. With Kirubi and Kituuka at the helm during the period under investigation, the committee’s complicity in approving dubious loans cannot be overlooked.

“Onyango, like other committee members, can only be paraded as accomplices, unless he individually got directly involved in planning the swindle with clear intentions,” said the source. Indeed, we are aware of police`s plans, as indeed advised by the DPP, to cast their net a little wider. And we can authoritatively report of how fresh arrests of big shots, are inevitable and soon. Watch this space…

Author Profile

Stanley Ndawula: Stanley Ndawula is a two and a half decades’ seasoned investigative journalist with a knack for serious crimes investigations and reporting. He’s the Founding Editorial Director and CEO at The Investigator Publications (U) Limited