The Independent Magazine which is owned by senior Journalist and Economic Critic Andrew Mwenda crossed into Rwanda some years ago and had since found good business ground, until trouble started stalking the entity.
Paul Oloya ,a former Country Manager and Accountant of The Independent Magazine was arrested and is being detained in Kigali by Rwanda Police Authorities.
TrumpetNews has learnt that Oloya is accused of fraud, having forged Andrew Mwenda’s signature to obtain money from Rwanda Development Board (RDB).
Mwenda is the CEO of Independent Magazine and he conducts business with Rwanda government.
Rwanda Development Board, is a government department that integrates all government agencies responsible for the attraction, retention and facilitation of investments in the national economy.
Our source in Kigali who asked to remain unnamed said that Oloya was arrested last year in December while his accomplice remains at large.
Whereas our source insists that Oloya forged Mwenda’s signature and fleeced him of approximately $25,000 obtained from RDB officials, Mwenda denies the claims but admits the accused was his employee until 2015 when he was sacked on grounds of fraud.
“Paul was our employee and we fired him. Then he went around pretending to be our employee and doing business and fleecing other people using our name,” Mwenda told TrumpetNews.
The belligerent ageing scribe confirmed his former staff was arrested last year, “He got jailed for it. We fired him in 2015 and he was arrested pretending to be our staff in 2017. We fired him not because he stole money from Independent, but also for mishandling staff monies.”
“He was stealing their salaries,” Mwenda added.
On allegations of forgery, Mwenda said he is unaware, ” I don’t think (or know) whether he forged my signature.
Police are investigating that with the Bank. What is true is that he used to divert staff salaries to his own account.”
Oloya is suspected to have colluded with Bank officials in Rwanda to commit the crime.
“How he did that,we don’t know and is a subject for investigation right now. He may have collided with someone in the Bank, he may have forged my signature, he may have used a digital signature using photoshop. These are things police is investigating,” he said.
Rwanda Police publicist ACP Theo Badege when reached for comment referred us to the Ugandan Embassy.
“First seek information from the Ugandan Embassy. Whenever a foreigner is arrested, his Embassy is notified immediately,” he said.
By press time Ambassador Oliver Wenokha had not responded to our queries on the case
It remains unclear whether Oloya has been produced in Courts of Law.
His arrest comes high on heels of heightened diplomatic ties between Kampala and Kigali.
This year, Minister of Foreign Affairs Sam Kutesa met with Rwandan President Paul Kagame to diffuse the escalating tensions between two countries.
TrumpetNews will continue to bring readers updates on the case as we investigate further.