Highly authentic documents, copies seen by MediaScape News shows that Uganda Civil Aviation (UCAA) Director General (DG) Fred Bamwesigye took lawful and legitimate steps in correcting the anomaly in his age.
In the evening of his time as Ag. DG and immediately after his confirmation as substantive DG, the media has been flooded with reports showing irregularities in Bamwesigye’s age.
Proponents of the reports say the UCAA DG has two dates of birth – November 27, 1967 and November 27, 1963.
To be appointed UCAA DG, one has to fit in the age bracket of 35 and 55 years.
Irrefutable documents this news site has seen shows that Bamwesigye took lawful and legitimate steps in correcting the irregularities and “At the time the time the Defendant made the statutory declaration, there was no contention regarding his date of birth, and, certainly, there was no pending court proceedings regarding the same”
“The defendant therefore took lawful and legitimate steps in order to correct an anomaly the reason for whose occurrence he explained,” court ruled in April 2021.
This was after a former employee of UCAA identified as Magambo Mpumwire ran to court contesting Bamwesigye’s age.
Court further ruled that correcting the anomaly was not in bad faith.
“In the absence of strict and specific evidence, bad faith cannot be imputed over such a legal step. It has therefore not been proved to the court that the correction of birth record by the Defendant was an act done in bad faith and/or with an ulterior motive. On the contrary, available evidence supports a finding that the said correction was an act done bona fide. This question therefore answered in favor of the Defendant,” High Court Judge, Boniface Wamala ruled on April 9, 2021.
Bamwesigye had told court that his parents, Fred Kyangande and the late Dorosi Nyakimaga who were both fully literate informed him that he was born on November 27, 1967 at Nyaburiza, Ntungamo Sub County in present day Ntungamo district. He was duly baptized on March 31, 1972 at Rwenanuura Church of Uganda. However, in the course of his studies, he erroneously indicated his date of birth as November 27, 1963 and that this error was maintained in official and other records, in which the date of birth or age was required for consistency purposes.
“On or about 12th September 2007, long before he joined UCAA, the Defendant took steps to clarify the issue of his birth and accordingly swore statutory declaration clarifying the issue of his correct date of birth,” documents show.
Vianney Mpungu Luggya, the Manager Public Affairs, UCCA corroborates the above narrative.
In arecent statement, Luggya, while responding to what he describes a recycled story wrote that:
We have noted inaccurate reports claiming discrepancies in the age and name for the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority’s director general, Mr Bamwesigye Fred Kanyangoga, and wish to put the record straight as follows;
This matter first came to light through a malicious whistleblower’s letter to various investigative bodies, including the office of the Inspector General of Government (IGG), which have all since fully investigated the matter several times and dropped the allegations as unfounded and baseless.
In April, a recycled anonymous whistleblower report was again sent to the Inspectorate of Government over the same claims, and in a media interview, the then acting IGG noted that the claims were first presented to the IGG in 2017, comprehensively investigated and found to be untrue. The matter was recycled four times and sent to the same office with the same content.
The matter has also been to court through civil suit no. 110 of 2021, and the court resolved the matter through a ruling that exonerated Bamwesigye on April 9. He erroneously recorded conflicting dates in his early school days, which was carried on in the first years of employment.
However, upon confirmation of the right date of birth, following recovery of authentic documentation, including a baptism card, the right date was formally regularised through a September 2007 Statutory Declaration, and this was long before contemplating that he would in future vie for the position of DG of UCAA.
In 2007, he had not even joined the authority. The records being discussed on social media are from a passport that was obtained sometime back before confirmation of the exact date of birth (as indicated above).
In their investigations, the Inspectorate of Government noted as much, and so did the court, before making a ruling on the matter.
While previously, the whistleblower has been anonymous, he has since revealed himself as Mr Pascal Jabbe Osinde, a former employee of UCAA whose services were terminated on account of a court order.
He has now written to the Committee of Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises, other Committees of Parliament and a host of media houses over the same matter (that has severally been investigated and dropped).
Whereas UCAA and the DG are contemplating legal action, the malicious claims should be ignored with the contempt they deserve, and will not distract the DG and the Authority from executing the mandate.