By Charles Etukuri
President Yoweri Museveni has directed Nelson Tugume the chairperson of Coffee Investment Consortium Uganda (CICU) to account for $10m (sh37b) that was advanced to him for value chain
This follows a public outcry by key players in the sector after it emerged that the money given to CICU had not been put to good use and cannot be accounted for.
Tugume’s consortium reportedly received the money on behalf of other coffee stakeholders under the supervision of the Minister for Science, Technology and Innovations Monika Musenero. Musenero in a letter dated January 15, 2024 to CICU’s Tugume noted that the President had requested for an update over the matter.
“His Excellency the President is requesting for an update on how far we have gone following the disbursement of the funds worth sh37b towards coffee value addition. In that regard, the Science, Innovation and Technology Secretariat is in the process of putting together the technical financial report for the milestones towards the coffee value chain,” Musenero said.
She demanded that Tugume submits, “a technical progressive report against the milestones and avails the record of accounts and all accountability documents for an internal audit,” in her letter copied to her technical staff.
Former Vision Group Chief Executive Officer, Robert Kabushenga, blew the whistle on allegations of improper conduct on the part of Tugume in a post on his X-Platform on January 12, 2024.
“So, it turns out that a political order was given and $10m (sh37b) was disbursed to Tugume. This money was meant to finance coffee export trade. But as some of us kept pointing out, this money has since ended up in his private account. He has lived up to his reputation as an accomplished crook and is no longer accessible. He has vanished with the money. This whole coffee value addition story is simply a scam. Clearly nothing good will ever come to us coffee people from the Government. Time to organize ourselves privately and find solutions for our business. There is no hope,” Kabushenga stated.
Kabushenga’s revelation immediately drew the key sector players with a group of X Influencers attacking him.
Tugume’s lawyers AHAMARK Advocates also wrote to Kabushenga and demanded for an immediate apology and retraction of his statements.
How Kabushenga, Tugume met
Kabushenga would later explain how he met Tugume and how he attempted to lure him to join the consortium.
“In the early afternoon Saturday June 12, 2021 two unexpected visitors arrived unannounced at Rugyeyo Farm in Namayumba where I grow coffee. They were driving in a black Toyota Land Cruiser VX. It was Simon Kasyate, and Tugume. Kasyate had been chasing me to do his Desert Island desk show on Capital FM. Tugume had tried to make contact but I was avoiding him. Now, I felt cornered but I didn’t show it. Although he claimed he wanted to tour my coffee farm, it later transpired that his real intention was to have me present at his Coffee City set up in Ntinda. He had invited Dr. Sam Mugasi, Executive Director of National Agriculture Advisory Services to come and launch it. He needed people of credibility in coffee to be present. I accepted and in fact showed up for that,” Kabushenga stated.
He revealed that the reason he had been avoiding Tugume was because he got to know of his dubious character during his time in the media.
“I therefore didn’t want anything to do with him since I knew him to be slippery. In our short interaction, he told me about his partnership with MasterCard Foundation and Private Sector Foundation Uganda, under the Young Africa Works project where he was being funded to create one million jobs. I have since learnt that he burnt through sh900m of their money and created no jobs. More on this later. After my brief visit to his outfit, I had nothing to do with Tugume again until September 2022.”
Kabushenga said in December 2019, he posted on Twitter his opposition to a draft Coffee Bill. “This marked the beginning of my advocacy in the coffee sector. That is how I got involved in the arguments over departure from the International Coffee Organization and the Vinci Agreement.”
On February 10 2022, the Minister of Finance, Matia Kasaija signed an agreement with an Italian, Enrica Pinetti to allow her company, Uganda Vinci Coffee Company Limited (UVCC), exclusively hand and establish a coffee processing plant worth $80 (sh300b). This was what was known and the Vinci agreement and it was opposed by many in the coffee sector.
Kabushenga said in the course of doing advocacy work, he learnt that Tugume with the assistance of some state officials had met the President and asked for $ 5m to market coffee. Nelson later confirmed this to me himself. He however clarified that the President’s position was that this money should be given to a consortium of industry players rather than an individual.
“In September 2022, I was invited to a coffee stakeholders meeting at State House and Tugume was not there because he was in London for the Investment Conference. At the end of that meeting, I was tasked with leading a formal coffee sector discussion which would culminate in an engagement with a Government team led by the Attorney General (AG) on the specific issue of the Vinci Agreement. At no point did the issue of money for the consortium come up,” Kabushenga explained.
Kabushenga further noted that, “Subsequently we held an initial meeting to brief other sector players about what had transpired at State House. That is when Tugume turned up and offered to host our next discussion. It was meant to harmonize our sector position on the Vinci Agreement and then submit written proposals to the AG. When we turned up at his Coffee City for this exercise, I found that Tugume had invited a much larger group of people and was claiming that it was the launch of the Coffee Consortium. I insisted on the limited discussion about the Vinci Agreement. After that I left. Subsequent meetings were held at another location and a report submitted to the AG. It was the last time I interacted with Tugume. He later rang me, pressurizing me to join his consortium, I refused. It turns out that he was charging sh10m for membership”.
He said in the early 2023, he got involved with another initiative of the real coffee players. “We wrote a report that was handed to Milly Babalanda, Minister for Presidency. It was the last time I was involved in coffee sector matters with government. After that, I learnt that Tugume’s consortium with the assistance of a Commissioner in Ministry of Finance, Planning and Development and Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports and Industrial Development (PACEID) had been given $10m (Sh37b). This was later disbursed through Ministry of Science. This was in spite of the objections of sector managers and the advice of various institutions that demonstrated Tugume’s crooked ways. All of this was ignored,” Kabushenga stated.
Efforts to get a comment from Tugume on Tuesday proved futile as his lawyer said he would engage him and get back to us with a comment. By press time, he had not responded.
