Shocking details of Solomon Serwanjja working with foreign NGOs and agencies whose intention is to destabilize Uganda’s political course and civic space have emerged citing huge sums of money handed to him to recruit unsuspecting Ugandan journalists into serving foreign interests.
According to a report seen by this publication from a security placed source, who for safety declines to be on record, Serwanjja is in bed with about more than two foreign embassies who are enabling his quickly growing African Institute for Investigative Journalism Ltd (AIIJ).
The source indicates that the embassies that have promised heaven on earth to the once celebrated investigative journalists provide cover for their espionage activities through AIIJ by funding what they call skills development training for national and local Ugandan journalists. The source details that the focus is emphasized on regional and upcountry journalists ahead of the 2026 general elections.
According to the information obtained from the source, on 17th – 19th March 2024, Serwanjja was in Mbale to train the Eastern cluster. The training was held at the Rosewood hotel in Mbale city. He addressed 15 journalists from the districts of Mbale, Kween, Moroto and Kotido.
The information further specifies that on 21st – 23rd March 2024, he was in Gulu city to train journalists from the Northern cluster while on 2nd – 4th April 2024, he was at Western Motel in Fort Portal city to train journalists from the Western cluster.
The details of the information indicate that in all these not very publicized meetings, the participants are well facilitated and with allowances and given transport refunds all at the expense of Serwanjja’s funders using the cover of his institute, AIIJ.
Serwanjja has on different occasions posted on his social media platforms boasting of providing training to journalists and sharing tools and techniques for investigating human rights. However, according to the information at hand this is not his activity but an extension of a foreign hand through him to local journalists as a means to interfere with Uganda’s civic space and recruit spies against Uganda while also breeding journalism that deepens cultural imperialism by covering up for LGBTQ under the guise of human rights.
This publication recently published a story with a source of information that highlighted some of the LGBTQ international NGOs as part of the funders of Serwanjja’s activities that include purported journalists training.
More details revealing the involvement of foreign missions and Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), a USAID affiliated organization have now emerged.
According to the information provided by the source, on 29th January 2024, UGX 189.3M was received on one of Serwanjja’s AIIJ accounts 10XXXXXXXX28 from CIPESA and on 05th March 2024 an additional UGX 190.2M from the same organization was received while on 27th March 2024, more UGX 190.2M was received from the same entity.
The information details that these funds are received from account to account as third party transactions to make them look legitimate. The source however said that these are deliberate money laundering techniques that Serwanjja and his funders use to elude the detection of the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA).
More funds and the other two focal journalists that Serwanjja uses to manage the accounts were highlighted by the source however this publication could not independently verify the involvement of the other two journalists, therefore cannot publish their names.
According to the details provided by the source, the information she details claiming it’s from her bank sources availed evidence of an upshoot of Serwanjja’s bank accounts’ transactions starting January of this year 2024.
This publication has independently verified from a source that was a participant of the program that at the end of January of this year 2024, which is around the time Serwanjja, with support from the British High Commission launched journalists training with a three-day fact checking focus at Hotel Lavena. The training was closed by Kate Airey, British High Commissioner to Uganda who handed over certificates to participants.
According to the participant who attended this training, the nature of skilling especially on human rights, political and civic issues raises suspicion and questions the reporting these journalists will do since to the participant, they were focused on sabotaging styles of reporting against Uganda social cultural and political settings. The participant also revealed that a database of the local journalists attending these programs is being created for purposes he could not explain.
