Kalungu West MP Joseph Ssewungu, speaking on 103.3 FM’s talk show hosted by Adam Kungu, made serious allegations about Frank Gashumba, variously described by the local media as a businessman and an entrepreneur.
The MP alleged this week that Mr Gashumba is a thief. When the show host tried to calm him down and to get him to retract what he had said, he repeated the allegation. He also alleged that Mr Gashumba, 51, is a fraudster.
“I have got him out of prison three times,” Mr Ssewungu said.
But allegations remain allegations unless they are supported by irrefutable evidence.
Mr Ssewungu said he knows Mr Gashumba well. His and Mr Gashumba’s father, he said, have been friends. The two men come from the same home area. Mr Ssewungu also claimed that he contributed some money to Mr Gashumba’s recent wedding.
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A pertinent question some who listened to the show are bound to ask is why Mr Ssewungu has continued to be a friend of someone he alleges is a thief and a fraudster.
But for an independent observer, the claims made by Mr Ssewungu raise serious questions about what Mr Gashumba does for a living.
When Ugandans were mourning the death of former Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah, who succumbed to cancer while being treated in the United States in March 2022, Mr Gashumba was one of the prominent Ugandans who were deeply saddened.
On April 2, 2022, he wrote on Facebook: “Jacob Ouanyah he not only embodied [sic] UBUNTU, he taught millions to find truth within themselves. He used his background in UPC to sharpen his arguments. We will never see the likes of Jacob L’Okori Oulanyah. May God bless the memory of Oulanyah.”
On the show, the MP alleged that Mr Gashumba was close to Mr Oulanyah because he was using him to attack former Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga, whom Mr Oulanyah replaced.
In other words, Mr Gashumba was being paid for hurling verbal grenades against Ms Kadaga on behalf of Mr Oulanyah.
If true, this will surprise many because Mr Gashumba has cultivated an image of a successful entrepreneur who makes enough without relying on politicians or politics.
In an article Daily wrote about him in May 2015, he was asked how much he earns from his businesses. “I earn enough to keep me out of elective politics,” he said.
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The same article detailed a string of businesses Mr Gashumba runs—or used to run. It said he is the chairman of Mali Group of Companies, which has a number of sub-groups, including Mali Mixed Farm, the agriculture arm, Sarafina Skills Services, which finds jobs for Ugandans abroad and Sarafina Safaris, a transport and tours and travel firm.
But a search of Mali Group of Companies in the Uganda Registration Services Bureau’s portal turns up two companies under the same name whose status is “unknown”, as the screenshots in this article show.
The most damning part of Daily Monitor’s article is a catalogue of alleged criminal offences by Mr Gashumba. The article says that in February 2011, Mr Gashumba was fined shs1m after he was convicted of attempting to defraud Dfcu Bank of more than shs178m. He launched an appeal, the newspaper wrote, and the High Court cleared him.
Another alleged criminal case mentioned in the article is Mr Gashumba’s attempt to defraud a Turkish firm in October 2011. He and his co-accused were acquitted for lack of evidence.
But in 2017, Mr Gasumba was back in the headlines over alleged criminal offences, and there are photos of him in handcuffs on the internet.
Is he an entrepreneur? The businesses he claims to own are conspicuous by their absence, raising legitimate questions about whether his entrepreneurship exists beyond rhetoric.
🔴 Musaazi Namiti is the Founder and Editorial Director of OJ-UGANDA. He previously led the Africa Desk at Al Jazeera in Doha, Qatar, worked for Globe Media Asia in Cambodia and writes a widely read column for Uganda’s Sunday Monitor. His work has been quoted by The New York Times, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Jeune Afrique, The Africa Report—not for playing it safe, but for saying what others will not.
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