| Kampala
POLICE have raided the Immigration and Passport Control head office in Kampala arresting two officials.
Two other officials are missing. It is suspected that they are in hiding.
The Deputy Passport Control Officer, Mr Chris Onyero, and Ms Edith Manyire, an immigration officer, are being held at Jinja Road Police Station.
They face two charges of abuse of office and irregular conduct.
Mr Herman Owomugisha, the personal assistant to the Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, said the arrests are part of a wide operation in line with the "zero tolerance to corruption policy."
The two officials under detention allegedly gave genuine Ugandan passports and visas to suspected Congolese rebels who had been arrested in Belgium with forged Congolese passports.
In February, 10 Congolese nationals transited through Uganda to Brussels with forged Congolese passports after the then head of the Uganda immigration department's
investigations office Room 3, Onyero and his deputy Manyire allegedly cleared them, as businessmen.
However, on arrival at Brussels Airport, security detained them on suspicion that they were Congolese rebels, traced their origin and deported them.
On arrival at Entebbe Airport, police took them to Jinja Road Police Station where they were briefly held before being released under unclear circumstances.
Linked them
Security sources told Daily Monitor that Moses, an immigration officer, who had earlier connected the men to Onyero and Manyire, stood surety for them.
The source said upon release, Onyero and Manyire allegedly gave them genuine Ugandan passports letting them 'melt' away in the Ugandan society in exchange for an undisclosed amount of money.
Security agencies were tipped off of the Congolese's presence in the country and they were re-arrested. “After interrogation, they told us those in the racket in immigration of issuing other nation's dissidents with genuine Ugandan passports and visas,” the source said.
After Wednesday's arrests, top officials at the department have stayed away from office.
Some of them allegedly fear arrest.
Ms Pearl Mutiibwa, the Immigration Commissioner, has not stepped in her office since Wednesday.
She not been at her home either. Her mobile phones are also off.
MR
Wilberforce Ngonde, the passport control officer, has not worked since Wednesday.
He reportedly showed up briefly at the office yesterday at midday, but left shortly after.
Efforts by Daily Monitor to reach him by telephone were futile as his phone was switched off.
Work at standstill
The atmosphere at the immigration headquarters was reported to be tense with most staff speaking in hushed tones about the developments.
Those who talked to Daily Monitor on condition of anonymity confirmed the absence of the commissioner and the passport control officer.
They claimed the absence of top officials could cost the government millions of shillings in uncollected revenue.
“For two days now, no single passport or work permit has been issued,” said one officer who preferred anonymity.
On average, passport issues and work permits collect Shs50 million daily.
The immigration and passport control office has been in the spotlight on matters of fraud, including the alleged illegal issuance of passports to five Rwandans dissidents.
Dr Ignance Murwanashyaka the leader of the Hutu-dominated rebel movement, the Forces démocratique pour la libération du Rwanda (FDLR) and four of his fighters
were arrested in Germany with Ugandan passports sparking a fresh diplomatic row between Uganda and neighbouring Rwanda.
President Yoweri Museveni has repeatedly criticised the department and threatened tough action.
In December last year, following a police summons from the Criminal Investigations Directorate, Ms Pearl Mutiibwa, and three other officials were interrogated for hours at the CID on charges of abuse of office and causing financial loss.
The other immigration officers interrogated are Kamugisha Ludovic, Ngonde and Mr John Kanakulya.
The summons under reference number CID/C40/207 FRAUD signed by Mr Norbert Opio on behalf of the CID director was addressed to the Permanent secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The summons indicate that the officials were being investigated over the loss of 2,500 visa stickers in the series UA 30001-32500 and work permits all totaling to over Shs2 billion.
The police probe into
corruption in the immigration department resulted from a December 6, 2005 intelligence report to the President titled 'Continued corruption, maladministration and sabotage of government policies'.
The brief, prepared by the Internal Security Organisation, implicated Mutiibwa, who has been at the immigration department for 10 years now, for frustrating investors by allegedly 'sitting' on their work permits unless they part with a bribe.
“The fate of close to over 5,000 pending application files since 2003 is unknown, unless one gives a bribe of close to Shs3 million,” the brief reads in part.
“It's a Uganda government policy to woo investors and the Uganda Investment Authority gives them the licence yet they get a very big problem in getting the work permits from the corrupt Uganda immigration,” the brief said,
“This weakness has made some aliens loiter in the country without anything to do.”
The same brief recommended that
Mutiibwa be interdicted and a thorough investigation on her office be carried out and 'an independent minded person with integrity be appointed to see the department regain the long-tarnished and corrupt image'.
The brief also called for the restructuring of the entire immigration department and the monitoring of all entry points for aliens' in- and out-flow. None of those recommendations have been effected to date. | 
