During his visit to Rukungiri in 2018, at Nyakagyeme grounds, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni introduced an unknown female adult to the audience who would later be known as Peace Rugambwa, born of Ntungamo in Southwestern Uganda.
The President, as with most of his messages on rallies, was teaching about poverty alleviation from the area when he introduced Rugambwa, who had convinced him that onion farming was a quick and effective plan to get the people of Rukungiri out of poverty, citing the region’s fertile soils, constant high onion prices, and the crop’s reliable local and international market.
Due to his passionate fight towards poverty eradication, the President generously donated UGX 50 million to Peace Rugambwa as seed capital to catalyze her onion farming project in Rukungiri. The crowd, as you would expect, cheered on, and because of the strong recommendation by the President, they welcomed her project with great anticipation and hope.
In Rukungiri, unlike Ntungamo, onions were not commonly grown crops, so most farmers, in the beginning, tried it, and as fate would have it, a few farmers who had pioneered it did not get the much-anticipated harvests, and this marked the end of their hope in onions.
“When we planted the onions, we did not realize harvests, as was hyped by Rugambwa and her team. I can tell you that most of the farmers in Bwambara have since lost interest in that project,” Loyce Natukunda, a resident of Bwambara Sub County, said, adding that most of them have lost hope in onions and resorted to their original crops of beans, cassava, coffee, sweet and Irish potatoes, etc.
Rugambwa, contrary to the President’s support and guidance, deviated from the original plan of onion farming to promising poor people a whole lot of items such as coffee, piglets, goats, mattresses, cows, poultry, and bedsheets, among others.
According to her, for one to qualify to receive any of the above items, he/she had to pay UGX 12,000 to Peace Rugambwa’s informal association, known as Boona Bageigahare Nyekundire Group. This group, despite its alarming illegalities, continued to collect the same amount from over 40,000 poor people in Rukungiri district.
“Peace Rugambwa, since 2018, has collected over UGX 500,000,000 from the poor people from the sub-counties of Nyakagyeme, Buhunga, Ruhinda, Bwambala, Bungangari, Nyakishenyi, Nyarushanje, Buyanja, Kebisoni, and Municipality,” Moses Rwakacaka, a Vice Chairperson of Peace Rugambwa of the Boona Bageigahare association said.
“We paid UGX 12,000 and submitted our names to receive mattresses, piglets, coffee, and other items as promised by madam Peace Rugambwa, but up to now, we have neither received anything nor heard from her,” Asaph Ninsima, a resident of Kebisoni said.
“Some of our colleagues who had paid the same amount, especially the elderly, have since gone to meet their creator without receiving any of the promised items,” John Natumanya, a senior citizen of Bwanda in Buyanja-Rubabo county, said, adding that we had reached a point where we had united and vowed that, if Rugambwa steps her foot in Rukungiri, we should arrest and present her to the authorities because of her crocked and mischievous tendencies.
In 2023, tensions started flaring up in the district about the unmet promises by Peace Rugambwa and the increasing quest by people who had lost their money, causing deep-seated anger and unrest in society.
“What shocked most of the victims, including but not limited to us, who were working with her, was coming to a depressing reality that such colossal sums of hard-earned money from the poor people were being deposited into her personal bank accounts,” Bernard Gumisiriza, a mobilizer of Boona Bageigahare Nyekundire in Buhunga sub-county said.
“This matter was brought to my attention by the victims who had lost their money to Rugambwa and her group, and in consultation with the district leadership, shockingly, I discovered that this was an organized group that had stolen from the poor people not only from Rukungiri alone but from the entire Kigezi region, covering the districts of Ntungamo, Kanungu, Kabale, Kisoro, and Rubanda,” Maj Gen (Rtd) Jim Muhwezi, Minister of Security and MP for Rujumbura county said.
Muhwezi added that as the NRM District Chairman, this was a shocking discovery that was, by all intents and purposes, criminal in nature and undermining the values of the NRM Party, and that he subsequently, working with the leadership, brought the contentious matter to the attention of the president.
On March 12, 2024, the President, after a thorough investigation into the matter, invited both Rugambwa’s team and Rukungiri District Leadership led by Muhwezi to Nakasero State House.
In this meeting, according to Rukungiri RDC Stephen Nsubuga Bewayo, the President was shocked to learn that Peace Rugambwa, whom he had endorsed to alleviate poverty, was rather entrenching the same by soliciting money from the poor people.
Speakers, one by one, relentlessly kept pinning Rugambwa in front of the President, exposing her dirty and scandalous tendencies that she undertook to steal UGX 12,000 from over 166,000 poor people in the Kigezi region.
In his remarks, the President, according to Hon. Muhwezi, reminded Rugambwa that the NRM government or its officials and supporters do not solicit money from the citizenry, including for reasons not limited to the buying of party cards.
In his concluding remarks, the President, according to the Rukungiri District LC5, Mr. Geofrey Kyomukama, gave four directives to both parties in attendance. 1. The President asked Rugambwa to stick to her original plan of onions if she still believed that it was a valuable project and to immediately abandon other programs such as livestock, seedlings, mattresses, and assorted home items. 2.) The President directed Rugambwa to work with the district leadership of Rukungiri as she conducts her program at all levels. 3). The President, out of his generosity, promised to refund the UGX 12,000 to all the victims in Rukungiri District. 4). Lastly, the President tasked Hon. Jim Muhwezi, as the NRM District Chairperson, to convene a reconciliatory meeting to harmonize all the differences and provide leadership for the two parties (Rugambwa and District Leadership).
On July 18, 2024, Hon. Muhwezi, following the presidential directive, convened and chaired a reconciliation meeting in the Main Hall of the Rukungiri District Headquarters between Rugambwa’s team and District Leadership, in which he reminded both parties of the above presidential directives.
However, on the contrary, Rugambwa, in the same meeting, refused to acknowledge that the President had promised to refund the UGX 12,000 to the people. “The President did not mention that he was ready to refund any money but rather wanted to give us more items to give to people,” Rugambwa reiterated as she stormed out of what was a reconciliatory meeting fulfilling the President’s guidance.
In the same meeting, members of her group, such as Moses Rwakacaka, her Vice Chairperson, who was equally present at State House in Nakasero, raised and affirmed that indeed the President had promised to refund the UGX 12,000 to all the victims in the District.
Again, contrary to all Presidential directives, on October 21, 2024, Rugambwa, without consulting or informing the District Leadership, appeared on Boona FM (a local radio station) inviting people to come to Rukungiri Stadium and pick up their promised items ranging from piglets, cows, goats, poultry, bedsheets, mattresses, coffee seedlings, etc.
“When we heard the announcement, we immediately reached out to Rugambwa, who was in Kampala, to inquire about the proposed method of distribution that does not cause insecurity and any other form of crisis in our society,” RDC Rukungiri Stephen Nsubuga said, adding that they have challenged Rugambwa to identify a single store in Rukungiri where she has kept the announced items.
“We, as the district leadership, are not interested in distributing but rather concerned about keeping law and order during the process of distribution. But from what we gather, there is no single store in Rukungiri from where such items are kept. Rugambwa is just spreading fake and misleading statements aided by corrupted media houses to cause commotion and gain the attention of the President,” LC5 Chairman Geofrey Kyomukama said.
Rugambwa, previously seen and perceived as powerful and well-connected, has now lost the trust and credibility of her executive members, members of the Rukungiri community, and Kigezi at large. In a meeting that sat on Wednesday, November 4, 2024, in Rukungiri, 80% of executive committee members, led by Julius Kahigyiriza, a founding member of Boona Bageigahare, asked her to either hide from the Presidential directives or never to return to Rukungiri District.
“As a result, Rugambwa, who is now desperate, has resorted to social media attacks on Hon. Muhwezi, falsely accusing him of frustrating her program, but we, as leaders of Boona Bagageihare, know that Rugambwa has stolen a lot from the poor, and she’s using the name of Hon. Muhwezi as a scapegoat,” said Paul Mubangyizi, a member of the Boona Bageigahare group.
Topher Karabaya, Chairman of Boona Bageigahare Group, has given their leader a two-week ultimatum to explain why she does not want to work with the District Security Committee as guided by the President, adding that they have also seen and heard that Rugambwa is collecting National Identity Cards from the elderly in Buhunga sub-county, which in their view is another scam by Rugambwa.