KAMPALA–Barely few days after a dossier leaked, accusing the former headteacher of Kibuli Secondary School head teacher Hajji Ali Mugagga of alleged sexual misdeeds with some of his students, the Ministry of Education has started to probe the matter.
Yesterday (Thursday) evening, two sources at the ministry who preferred anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, told PML Daily that they are analyzing the dossier and soon action will be taken against Mugagga.
“We discussed the matter with some of my colleagues at the ministry. A concerned Ugandan wrote to the ministry, complaining about Mugagga’s misconduct. Wider investigations have kicked off. And he is found guilty, he will be liable for his actions,” one of the sources revealed.
Though the sources didn’t discuss the matter at length, the State minister for Primary Education Rose Mary Seninde said Mugagga’s teaching certificates will be cancelled, if he is found guilty.
“The teaching profession has got its own code of ethics which Mugagga knows them very well. Also, if he is found guilty, the parents of the victims have a right to sue him,” she added.
Due to endless pressure after an expose of alleged sex scandals that rocked him, Mugagga this week handed over office to his deputy Hajjat Mastulah Nambajjwe Serugo.
This was after an erstwhile investigator — Leonard Ronald Egesa published on social media, scintillating details.
In his Tuesday January 23, 2018, handover letter, Hajji Mugagga says he was proceeding on leave for 36 days, saying all activities, including admissions for S.1 and S.5 students, will remain normal.
“The school will resume as per the start of the term. We regret all the inconvenience that will be caused by this development,” the school management said in a Facebook message on its official page.
But Mr Egesa, who chose to publish results of his investigation on his Facebook page, saying authorities had failed to listen to his calls to discipline Mugagga and retire him in public interest, says the ministry of education officials and the School’s Management board was forced to act and send the man on leave after he published his findings.
Mr. Egesa’s inquiry, which he says was conducted between August and November last year, accuses Mugagga of preying on his students, especially those from poor families.
“In some cases, I would not only interview the ‘child’ (majority of them are now women) alone, I would go an extra mile and interview the mothers, sisters and friends in order to corroborate the evidence and even get all dates clearly to match with those in the CDRs. The stories are chilling. I promised to protect the identity of the victims,” Mr Egesa says.
On Monday, Mr Egesa also wrote to the Minister of Education and Sports, First Lady Janet Museveni requesting her to intervene and clean up the sector of scandalous officials like Hajji Mugagga, saying the technocrats were in bed with the wrong fellows.
Mr Egesa says his investigation followed Hajji Muggaga back to his previous postings as headteacher at Gombe SS, and Lubiri SS, and promised he would expose more headteachers he was still investigating.
Residential home turned into guest house
According to the dossier, Mugagga pays school fees for his victims and immediately after completing studies, he marries some of them.
He is also accused of turning his residential house in Seeta, Mukono into a brothel, as he carries out his sex escapades especially with young girls.
The dossier indicates that the investigators took time to investigate Mugagga’s conduct, by talking to victims.
He is also accused of mismanaging school funds and failure to show accountability on some projects.
Joining others
The damaging allegations link Hajji Mugagga to a chain of school managers who have before been accused of abusing their students.
In May last year, the country was shocked when many girls paraded their kids, pointing at the late Prof Lawrence Mukiibi the founder of St. Lawrence Schools to be their father.
Some of the girls were his students, from secondary school and university.
