Odumbi James Owere, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions
Mr. Odumbi James Owere joined the ODPP as a Pupil State Attorney in 1994. He served as Resident State Attorney in several districts until he obtained an accelerated promotion to the rank of Principal State Attorney in 2002.
In 2003, Mr. Odumbi was seconded to the Inspectorate of Government to help in building capacity. He was appointed as Head of Prosecution Unit and elevated to a Senior Principal Inspectorate Officer in an Acting Capacity. The secondment was recalled in February 2007 and Mr. Odumbi was appointed to Head the Fraud Unit of the ODPP. In August 2007, he was promoted to Senior Principal State Attorney. He oversaw the Millennium Challenge Account Threshold Program in the Office and also coordinated Global Funds and NAADs investigations, which led to a number of very successful prosecutions and recovery of lost funds before the Anti-Corruption Court.
He obtained a two-year assignment with the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation (CFTF) as an Expert Prosecutor in the Gambia in 2011. In 2013, he returned and was appointed to help set up and head the newly created Land Crimes Department which he executed well. In 2015, Mr. Odumbi was appointed Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions and tasked to head the Inspectorate and Quality Assurance Department of the Institution. In 2017, he was elevated to Principal Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions in charge of the Directorate of Inspections, Quality Assurance, Research and Training. He has also managed the contract and implementation of the Prosecution Case Management System (PROCAMIS), a strategic management and information system technology, operating in the ODPP.
Mr. Odumbi has now been elevated to the position of Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions.
Mr. Odumbi holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Eastern and Southern Africa Management Institute (ESAMI), a Post Graduate Diploma in Management Studies from Uganda Management Institute (UMI), a Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Centre (LDC), and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) Honors from Makerere University. He holds a diploma of and is a Trainer of Trainers in Trial Advocacy.
He has extensively trained in investigations, prosecutions and management of white-collar crimes, financial and economic crimes, fraud and cyber-crime.
Vincent Wagona, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions
Mr. Vincent Wagona is a long-serving Attorney of over 25 years with vast knowledge, experience and exposure in national and international criminal prosecutions. He has a strong background in handling fraud and corruption cases, war crimes and crimes against humanity and criminal prosecutions and appeals at all court levels.
He holds a Masters in Business Administration from Eastern and Southern Africa Management Institute (ESAMI), a Diploma in Management from Uganda Management Institute (UMI), a Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Centre (LDC), and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) Honors Degree from Makerere University.
Upon joining the ODPP, Mr. Wagona served as Resident State Attorney, Kabale (responsible for Kabale, Rukungiri and Kisoro Districts); Resident Senior State Attorney, Mbarara (responsible for Mbarara, Bushenyi, Ntungamo and Ibanda Districts); and Resident Senior State Attorney, Buganda Road before he coming to the head office.
Between 2001 and 2002, he served as Assistant Lead Counsel at the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Justice Porter Commission). Between 2006 and 2009, he obtained leave and served as Trial Attorney with the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), an International Criminal Tribunal, where he participated in the pre-trial phase of the Charles Taylor Case; trial phase of the AFRC Case; and trial, sentencing, and appeal phases of the RUF Case.
He returned to Uganda to became the pioneer Head of the Anti-Fraud Division, the first specialized ODPP Unit that has grown into the Department of Anti-Corruption. He later served as Head of Department of Field Operations, managing all the regions and stations in the ODPP.
Mr. Wagona has been a Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions caretaking the Directorate of Management Support Services and serving as Accounting Officer since November 2018, following the retirement of long serving Deputy DPP and Accounting Officer Mr. Amos Ngolobe. At the head office, he has played key roles in organizational restructuring, internal policy formulation, and performance management initiatives.
Mr. Wagona has now been elevated to the position of Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions.
Alice Komuhangi Khaukha, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions
Ms. Alice Komuhangi Khaukha joined the ODPP as a Pupil State Attorney in 1999. She was promoted to Senior State Attorney in 2003 and later Principal State Attorney in 2007. In 2014, she was promoted to Senior Principal State Attorney. She was given an accelerated promotion to the Post of Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions in 2017, a post she held until her appointment as Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions.
She headed a number of DPP field stations in the Eastern and Central Uganda and when the first Anti-Fraud Unit of the ODPP was established to handle very high profile and complex fraud and corruption-related matters, she was seconded to it. She was a team leader in the investigations and prosecution of Global Fund cases some of which she prosecuted and secured 100% conviction rate. She later acted as the head of that Unit which later translated into the Anti-Corruption Department.
Ms. Komuhangi actively and effectively represented the ODPP on the Legal task force of the Inter-Agency Forum (IAF) that initiated and developed the Anti-Corruption Act No.6 of 2009, the Whistle-Blowers Protection Act No.6 of 2010, and the National Strategy on Zero Tolerance to Corruption, the Leadership Code Amendment Act. She also participated in the development of the Anti-Money Laundering Legislation 2013.
Between August and December 2013, Ms. Komuhangi worked as the Deputy Head of the newly established Department of the Land Crimes Department, the department that oversees the investigation and prosecution of all land related crimes in Uganda. Between 2013 and 2016, Ms. Komuhangi headed the Kampala Regional Office, the busiest region of the Office of the DPP handling complex cases.
Her deployment as head of the Gender, Children and Sexual Offences Department followed. While heading the Department, she initiated, identified and developed a Training Curriculum on Child Psychology, Child Development and Child Engagement, through which prosecutors countrywide have been trained and benefited from. It was during the same time that she also conceived the idea of a child friendly space, a room where child witnesses and victims are prepared and refreshed in preparation for presentation in court, the first of its kind in all Justice Law and Order Sector institutions. The innovation which started at the Head Office Kampala has since been rolled out in major ODPP Regional Offices the most recent being the Masaka ODPP Regional Office.
She went on to head the Anti-Corruption Department, the biggest and best performing department of the ODPP in April 2018. The department handles all corruption and money laundering cases in the country and cases of asset recovery from the illicitly acquired gains. She has successfully ensured the prosecution of corruption and money laundering cases registering a conviction rate of over 80%.
Ms. Komuhangi represents Uganda as a focal Point Person on the Asset Recovery Network for Eastern Africa (ARIN-EA), a network that allows and eases the sharing of information within the Region on matters of identifying illicitly acquired assets.
She has now been elevated to the position of Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions.
She holds a Masters Degree in Institutional management and Leadership (MIML) from Uganda Management Institute (UMI), a Master of Laws (LLM) Degree from Makerere University, a Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Center and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) Honors Degree from Makerere University.
