Moses Mapesa, former executive director of Uganda Wildlife Authority-UWA wants court to quash the Justice George Kanyeihamba commission report into the mismanagement of the Protected Areas Management Sustainable Use (PAMSU) project. In his petition filed before Kampala High court on Thursday, Mapesa contends that the report is biased because he was not given chance to defend himself.
He also claims that the commission confiscated all the documents he could have used to defend himself. Mapesa argues that when he appeared before the commission he was subjected to a lot of intimidation by Justice Kanyeihamba, who often asked him leading question and ordered him to answer in the affirmative. In his affidavit supporting the petition, Mapesa says that Kanyeihamba portrayed him as the villain at the various press conferences he addressed during the commission hearing.
He claims that the commission relied heavily on evidence provided by the Boysier Muballe, former UWA Board chairman that forced him out of office when he opposed some of their decisions. In 2002, government received US $33 million from World Bank for the five-year PAMSU project. Of this, US $29 Million was a loan that would be repaid with interest, while the rest was a grant. The money was meant to build UWA headquarters, set up infrastructure in 10 national parks and 12 wildlife reserves.
Additionally, it was to construct staff quarters in all parks, demarcate the parks and reserves, and buy equipment such as tractors for road maintenance, vehicles, uniforms and radio equipment among others. However, most of the money was squandered forcing Kahinda Otafiire, the then Tourism Trade and Industry minister to set up a commission of inquiry in March into the mismanagement of the project.
It was mandated to begin work on April 18, and complete it within a space of three months. However, the commission was stopped in November 2011, by Tourism State minister Ephraim Kamuntu, saying it had failed to deliver a comprehensive report on their findings. But a few days later Justice Kanyeihamba produced a report and handed several copies to the media drawing protests from the minister.
