In her address to the media in her office at Mukono district headquarters, Nakasi said she was charged with conspiracy to commit felony.
Mukono district council speaker, Betty Hope Nakasi has lashed at unnamed politicians for hatching sinister plots against fellow politicians with the concealed agenda of destroying their political agendas, and cautioned that such treacherous people may find themselves in similar messes.
Nakasi was on Tuesday speaking to journalists, hours after her release on police bond from Kampala Central Police Station where she had been transferred from Mukono along with three other people who are jointly charged with.
In her address to the media in her office at Mukono district headquarters, Nakasi said she was charged with conspiracy to commit felony.
It is alleged that a number of the Mukono District Service Commission (DSC), political leaders and other brokers extorted money from different job seekers with empty promises of giving them jobs.
Nakasi was arrested by the officials of the State House Anti-Corruption Unit (SHACU) along with Mukono DSC Chairperson, Eng. Godfrey Kibuuka Kisuule, one Ronald Mugerwa Ssaku and Dr. Saad Wataba on Friday July 11, 2025.
The SHACU operatives seemed to have been tickled by an earlier decision by the district chairperson, Rev. Dr. Peter Bakaluba Mukasa who on Thursday halted the DSC pending investigation in accusations of extorting money from job seekers.
The SHACU investigations were said to be still ongoing with more DSC members and other district employees in tension with the looming arrest speculation.
The Speaker said she was arrested because of the nature of her public office which she said is visited by people of both good and bad intentions.
CUTTING THROUGH HELL: Bringing The Al Shabaab-Torn Somali Land to Ugandans Through Literature
Though Nakasi said the SHACU members after confiscating her mobile phone landed on a WhatsApp message which she had sent to Eng. Kibuuka and it is the one which got her into the hot soup.
However, she continued to plead her innocence saying that her arrest is a political move which is intended to tarnish her image given the fact that it is a political season.
“Because we are politicians and given the political time we are going through, everybody including your own political head can go ahead and concoct stories to get you hooked as a criminal,” she said.
Nakasi noted that although her mobile phone was over and over scrutinized by police, nothing dubious was recovered.
She thanked Mukono Municipality MP Betty Nambooze Bakireke who linked her to the M/S Lukwago and Company Advocates that helped in working for her bond.
“Many people sympathized with me and stood with me from the moment I was arrested. However, it’s unfortunate that my district chairperson was not among them, and he has not communicated to me since my release,” Nakasi explained.
On the possible cause for her arrest, the speaker said a son of a prominent leader approached her with a request to be directed to the office of the DSC chairperson, which she said she willingly did.
She added that she was later told by the DSC chairperson, Eng. Kibuuka that the undisclosed person did not meet the prescribed requirements and so was not considered for any job.
Nakasi said this is all the communication that took place and she next saw SHACU officials knocking at her door, interrogating her, confiscating her phones and subsequently arresting her.
Seeta and Nyenje wards councilor in Mukono District Council, Haji Lukeman Sseggayi who was found in Nakasi’s office was happy that openness has finally prevailed in the entire matter through accessing of a police bond for her.
Turning to the public, Sseggayi noted that whatever the circumstances, jobs must be given out, and added that in situations where over 400 applicants are chasing only eight available jobs, opportunists are bound to take advantage of the testing time to taint colleagues’ names, with others out to con job seekers.
Without clarifying, Haji Sseggayi noted that it is dangerous for politicians to make statements out of incitement and emotion, and added that the Mukono job saga is a politically instigated matter.
He also castigated the district chairperson, Bakaluba Mukasa for exercising duties out of his mandate, adding, the powers of suspending the district service commission are far away from the office of the district chairperson.
“However, as an appointing authority, Bakaluba has the mandate to sermon the commission and ask them about the rumors surrounding them but suspending its operations is not under his jurisdiction,” he stated.