{UAH} Allan/Edmund/Pojim/WBK: Gen Oketcho in jail over Shs 500m debts
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Gen Oketcho in jail over Shs 500m debts
Lt Gen Frederick Alexander Oketcho, a former director of External Security Organisation (ESO), is in Luzira prison for failing to pay debts amounting to more than Shs 500m.
Last Wednesday, Oketcho was sentenced to six months in jail by High court deputy registrar Muse Musimbi over failure to pay a Shs 30.7m debt in one case and Shs 285m in another.
Yesterday, he was picked from the prison and brought before another deputy registrar in charge of execution and bailiffs, Flavia Nassuna Matovu, who further imprisoned him for another six months for failing to pay another moneylender, Patel R Arvind, Shs 185m.
"You are hereby commanded, and take and receive the Said, into civil prison and keep Oketcho imprisoned therein for a period not exceeding six months or until the said Shs 185m has been fully settled under terms and provisions of section 43 of the Civil Procedure Act," Matovu said.
The registrar, however, added that should the creditor Arvind fail to pay Oketcho Shs 3,000 daily for his feeding in prison, then the latter should be released. When The Observer briefly talked to Oketcho yesterday from the court cells, he said his debts stem from the failure by government to pay his pension and allowances he worked for during the February election.
He said he was only paid Shs 90m, leaving an unpaid balance of Shs 30m. According to friends, the general has since fallen sick in prison and is unhappy with President Museveni.
Ahmed Sserunjogi, a bailiff with Alain Auctioneers, told The Observer on October 31 that he and others arrested Oketcho last week. Oketcho, according to Sserunjogi, failed to pay their client Hadijah Kyakuwa's debt. "He declared that he did not have any money with him at that time. Unfortunately, he has now fallen sick and he is admitted in the prison hospital," Sserunjogi said.
According to Oketcho's friend who declined to be named, his woes stem from the army's delay to pay his retirement package and the money he worked for during the February 2016 presidential elections. Oketcho was promoted to lieutenant general and retired in August 2015 by President Museveni.
Oketcho is said to have worked closely with Tanga Odoi [chairman of NRM Electoral Commission] during the election period. For his work, Oketcho was supposed to be paid Shs 120m.
Another friend who identified himself as Francis Matovu said Oketcho's residential house on Lubowa Crescent will soon be attached by a moneylender he only called Makesh over a debt of Shs 250m.
This is not the first time Oketcho is arrested over debts. He was arrested in 2012 and 2014 before the arrest of last week. A letter seen by The Observer yesterday was talking of a complaint Arvind early 2015.
In reply, Maj Ronald Chemonges, a senior presidential advisor for political affairs, wrote to the former Defence Minister Crispus Kiyonga asking him to settle Oketcho's Arvind debt.
In this letter also copied to the then minister for presidency and KCCA Frank Tumwebaze, among others, Chemonges adds that government was preparing to pay Oketcho's pension money.
slubwaama@observer.ug
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