ON the morning of Tuesday, May 19, forensic investigators and armed detectives sealed off the fifth floor of Uganda’s Parliament building, designating the former Speaker’s chambers as an active crime scene. Evidence collection vans idled on the forecourt. Senior detectives from the Criminal Investigations Directorate carried document cases inside alongside members of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces. The institution constitutionally mandated to hold the executive accountable had, for a morning, become the subject of that accountability itself.
At the centre of the investigation is a question that investigators, the Inspectorate of Government, and the international community have been circling for years: how did Anita Annet Among – a former bank cleaner who rose to branch manager, then university lecturer, then politician – come to own multi-billion shilling mansions in Nakasero, Kigo and Ntinda, a Rolls-Royce Cullinan valued at Shs 3.6 billion, a hospital, a school, a sports park and an expanding business empire, on a public official’s salary?
The raids began on May 16 following a tense two-hour meeting at State House, Entebbe, where President Yoweri Museveni’s parting words to Among were unambiguous: “I am going to send you some auditors.” Within 48 hours, the auditors had been supplemented by something considerably more consequential – a joint force of CID detectives, UPDF personnel, and forensic crime scene officers who searched her properties for over 16 hours each.
The Rolls-Royce, a 2025 model imported in January 2026 and cleared through customs under Anita Foundation Limited, was impounded and towed to Naguru Police Headquarters as a crime exhibit. Among had described it as a birthday gift from “her businesses and wealthy friends.” A leaked customs document showing a substantial cash payment component toward importation costs had already ignited public outrage. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of the President, publicly declared he had never ridden in a Rolls-Royce in 52 years – and within days withdrew his endorsement of Among’s speakership bid for the 12th Parliament.
The vehicle was symbolic. Investigators are focused on something far more structural. Among, as Speaker and Chairperson of the Parliamentary Commission, chaired the body that controls Parliament’s own budget and salaries. Allegations now under forensic examination include that she systematically stripped parliamentary committees of their individual budget lines, consolidating those funds into the Speaker’s office budget, which she then allegedly treated as a personal resource. Screenshots of large sums transiting from parliamentary accounts into private bank accounts of individuals within Parliament had circulated on social media since 2024, triggering the #UgandaParliamentExhibition campaign.
Investigators are also examining the now-notorious “service awards” scandal: payments reportedly ranging between Shs 1.4 billion and Shs 1.7 billion per beneficiary, distributed to parliamentary commissioners in 2022 and 2023 without broader parliamentary scrutiny. Among is among those linked to those payments alongside former opposition leader Mathias Mpuuga and three other commissioners.
A parallel financial network is also now under scrutiny. Allegations have emerged linking Among to the operations of IGABU SACCO in Bushenyi, which reportedly received over UGX 705 million transferred from Igara Growers Tea Factory through transactions covering registration, operational expenses, and capitalisation. Sources allege IGABU SACCO operates from factory premises using factory utilities — and that it may be expecting a further 750 billion shillings routed under the name of Igara Growers Tea Factory. The allegations, which remain unproven in any court, suggest a geographically dispersed laundering architecture — parliamentary funds cleaned through an agricultural cooperative and recycled into political patronage.
None of this is entirely new to the international community. In April 2024, the United Kingdom sanctioned Among under its Global Anti-Corruption sanctions regime, freezing her UK assets. A month later, the US State Department designated her for “involvement in significant corruption tied to her leadership of Uganda’s Parliament,” also sanctioning her husband, football federation president Moses Magogo. Among dismissed both actions as retaliation for her role in passing Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act.
She is no longer laughing. Her parliamentary offices are sealed. Her Rolls-Royce is impounded. Her phones are being forensically examined. Her parliamentary communications director, Chris Obore, was arrested in Mukono. The Inspector General of Government has opened a formal investigation into her Leadership Code Act declarations. And on Sunday night, she withdrew from the speakership race in a statement pledging to “cooperate with all ongoing investigations.”
Critics, including exiled Uganda Law Society president Isaac Ssemakadde, have questioned whether the timing of the crackdown — precisely as Among sought re-election — reflects genuine accountability or a calculated political purge by a president eliminating a rival power centre. The point carries analytical weight. Museveni tolerated the accumulation of Among’s wealth for years. That he acts now, at the moment of political transition, is not incidental.
But the two readings are not mutually exclusive. The probe may be politically motivated, and the corruption real. Forensic investigators examining procurement records and financial trails inside Parliament are not interested in that distinction. They are counting the money, tracing the transactions, and building a case. Uganda will watch what they find.
