The fight between telecommunication giant MTN-Uganda and its former employee, Anthony Katamba is far from over as an internal whistleblower wrote to the board exposing the underhand methods that eventually led to the sacking of Mr. Katamba.
According to the leaked document, Mr. Katamba is allegedly implicated in the torture of staff at his former workplace and erasing of sensitive data implicating some people in wrongdoing.
Furthermore, he is accused of having erased useful data about criminals under the instructions of Mr. Nixon Agasirwe.
“There was a ruling of Criminal case 123 of 2012 at the High Court of Uganda by Justice Lawrence Gidudu on December 10, 2015.
In the ruling, the judge clearly implicated Anthony Katamba and his police friend, officer Mr. Nixon K. Agasirwe (who is currently in prison charged with abducting people who were later murdered) they tortured of Mr. Patrick Sentongo and this was done with the direct supervision of Mr. Katamba. I have attached a copy of the ruling”. The whistleblower writes.
According to a confession of one of the witnesses whom Justice Gidudu cross examined, he says he was arrested and driven to several police station before he was booked in at CPS room 87. The suspect says while in room 87, he met Mr. Agasirwe who handed him paper with set questions to answer if he was to gain his freedom.
“The following day February 17, 2013, the same four people picked me at 8.30 am; they took me to room 85. Nixon Agasirwe gave me a piece of paper, told me to kneel facing the white board. The paper had questions like how did I get the money from MTN and how it was shared. He assured me nobody would get me out unless he released me. I was hungry, scared and fragile. He said only my co-operation would cause me freedom”
He continues “At 5pm Mugisha and Katamba the company secretary of MTN came in. Nixon Agasirwe moved out saying I was co-operating. I told Katamba that I will make the statement but I need to see my lawyer, eat, bath and sleep. Katamba was annoyed. He called Nixon to say I was not co-operating. Nixon slapped me hard saying I had embarrassed him. I got up and told him I was ready to do what he wanted. Nixon told Katamba he would brief him. I was locked in a room”
In his ruling, Justice Gidudu said “The accused was harassed into submission and any purported confession resulting from those circumstances is not permissible and cannot be admitted in evidence. If this court permitted such a confession, it would put to risk all persons who deny offences in court because they would be re-arrested, tortured and forced to make a confession. I am protecting the judicial process from being invaded by the tyranny of persons who abuse their power off arrest such as the officers who participated in re-arresting A1” reads a certified copy of Justice Gidudu ruling.
Below is the whistleblower’s full letter
To all MTN Directors and Managers
I have been working for MTN-Uganda for a long time and am sad to see the way the company has been bashed in the last few weeks and I am really hurt because all that is being peddled is lies because I have been an insider for a long time and the current situation is all about ego and looting the company.
From the position I hold, I have access to all that is going on and I think it is time to highlight some of the issues because after I witnessed what my colleagues went through at the mercy of one man, we are all scared and the ruthlessness that was exhibited is inhuman and intolerable from somebody we all called a colleague, someone we ate with and laughed with.
This person is called Anthony Katamba, our GM for Legal and Corporate services. He bragged in the corridors some weeks ago that he was going to get four top executives in MTN-Uganda deported because they are playing with his power in the company and that he is the real CEO.
He has been very instrumental in all the corruption cases in the company from building the MTN Arena, to rentals to fleet management. Ask all suppliers, he demands a kickback before he approves your contract and this is done right in front of our eyes. He even gets payments from the legal firms that we give work. I have first-hand experience on this particular subject.
The real problem started with the enmity between Mr. Anthony Katamba and Richard Muwami, the fact is that Richard Muwami’s wife was Mr. Katamba’s girlfriend at University where the two clashed and Katamba has never forgiven Mr. Richard Muwami. This came to a head on when Mr. Richard Muwami was implicated in the Mobile Money theft with Mr. Sentongo.
It seems this was the best opportunity to payback Mr. Muwami and all the company problems have come up when this war started. Mr. Muwami has been fighting for his survival and he has been using underhand methods to hurt MTN because of the underhand methods Katamba has been using in order to get him locked away in prison.
The most frightening thing I have ever come across in the company was the fact that Mr. Katamba is a sadist and participated in torture of human beings.
There was a ruling of Criminal case 123 of 2012 at the High Court of Uganda by Justice Lawrence Gidudu on December 10, 2015.
In the ruling, the judge clearly implicated Anthony Katamba and his fried police officer Mr. Nixon K. Agasirwe (who is currently in prison charged with abducting people who were later murdered) torture of Mr. Patrick Sentongo and this was done with the direct supervision of Mr. Katamba. I have attached a copy of the ruling.
This shows you that you are harbouring a criminal and MTN needs to disassociate itself now from this sadistic criminal who has only been perusing his personal agenda in the company. He has with Nixon been compromising engineers in the company to erase call data records to protect criminal activities in the company.
He is a Rwandan and he was operating with the former Inspector General of Police as an agent for Rwanda. He is now trying to cover himself by turning into super grass for some security agency. How can MTN still hold a man who supervised human torture? How do you think we feel in the company? How do you think we feel in the company?
If MTN does nothing this case may destroy your reputation in the near future.
Once this ruling was done, Mr. Katamba instructed us to hide the ruling so that the board members, the chairman and the CEO never get to see it and we did until today I have been forced to expose him because of what he is doing to the company which caters for our family’s welfare