Details have emerged of the troubling financial status of the military guard who fatally shot Col (Rtd) Charles Engola—the junior Labour minister—this past week.
While the motive for the shooting remains unclear, Monitor has established that Pte Wilson Sabiiti—who turned the gun on himself after going on a shooting spree in the Kampala suburb of Kyanja—was servicing two loans.
We understand that whereas one of the loans was with the army’s Wazalendo Savings and Credit Cooperative Society (Sacco), another was with a commercial bank.
“It is true that he was facilitating loans with banks. He has a loan with Post Bank and a loan with Wazalendo Sacco. That means that with his [salary of] Shs480,500 he was taking home something like Shs130,000 or 138,000,” Col Deo Akiiki, the deputy spokesperson at the Defence and Veteran Affairs ministry, told this publication, adding that investigations into the shooting were still ongoing.
There is no cogent information that the shooting was triggered by financial stress. It was also not possible to establish the size of the loans that Pte Sabiiti was servicing. Post Bank and Wazalendo Sacco would not say. It should, however, be noted that employees are usually not allowed to take out loans that leave them with less than 30 percent of their basic salary after Pay as You Earn (PAYE) and contributions to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF).
Soldiers do not pay PAYE or make contributions to the NSSF. That would mean that Pte Sabiiti’s take home was Shs144,150 per month.
The salaries of all personnel in the armed forces were enhanced in 2021. A private in the army (the rank at which Sabiiti was) earns a minimum of Shs466,933 and a maximum of Shs497,748. Elsewhere, non-commissioned officers are paid a minimum of Shs501,493 and a maximum of Shs573,331.
Salary enhancement
On September 15, 2022, Defence and Veteran Affairs’ minister, Mr Vincent Ssempijja, alluded to the need to increase salaries of the army’s rank and file to match the enhancements of salaries of senior officers.
“We know that this is the time also when the government will be handling other civil servants,” Mr Ssempijja, who was speaking at an army pipping ceremony at UPDF headquarters, Mbuya, said back then.
While it was not possible to establish what Pte Sabiiti’s actual salary was, a few officers who spoke to this reporter on condition that their identities are not revealed put the figure at Shs480,500.
Col Akiiki, who in a sense corroborated the figure, told us that what Pte Sabiiti took home coupled with handouts from the principal he stood sentry on was enough “to survive on.”
“Of course the minister (Engola) was giving them (guards) some money. [Pte Sabiiti] still had enough money to survive on,” Col Akiiki said on Thursday.
Various witness accounts, which Monitor was unable to verify, however, suggest that Pte Sabiiti had been living from hand to mouth.
Pte Sabiiti’s sister Oliver Musiimenta on Thursday confirmed his pregnant wife in Kampala but did not divulge further details. Family sources in Kabarole, however, told this publication that Sabiiti had six children, five in school and a three-year-old who is not studying.
Although Pte Sabiiti struggled to pay fees for his children in Senior Three and Primary Seven, his sister refuted claims that his children had dropped out of school. She said her brother called the school and the headteacher allowed the children to sit exams.
This publication has also established that Pte Sabiiti’s biological children were only four, the other two were his uncle’s children. His grief-stricken mother, Ms Keduresi Uwezeyi, also corroborated this information.
Other accounts claimed Col Engola owed Pte Sabiiti Shs4 million in unpaid salaries but the army and family members, including the minister’s son George Olong, roundly dismissed the accounts. Col Akiiki also insisted that soldiers are paid by the 27th of every month.
“I have cross checked enough, this guy was always getting payment,” the Defence and Veteran Affairs deputy spokesperson said.
Inflationary pressures
By Col Akiiki’s calculations, Pte Sabiiti was taking home under Shs150,000. It is widely claimed by people in Kyanja that Sabiiti was staying in a “cheap” rented place near Col Engola’s home.
This publication could not independently establish whether it was the minister or the soldier who had been paying for the said accommodation.
It was also not possible to establish whether the guards that were part of Col Engola’s entourage shared a single accommodation space. Brokers this newspaper spoke to, however, put the cost of renting single room tenements in Kyanja at anywhere between Shs50,000 and Shs100,000.
“The cost varies, but it depends on the environment and facilities. If it is inside an enclosure one pays between Shs70,000 and Shs100,000, but a single room usually goes for Shs50,000 a month,” Mr Deo Mwanja, a broker who operates out of the Ntinda, Najjera and Kyanja areas, told Monitor.
The minimum asking rate for accommodation of this nature is Shs50,000. In the event that the facility knocked off the aforesaid amount, Pte Sabiiti would then have had to live off Shs100,000.
A source told Monitor that all but one of Col Engola’s bodyguards were living in the same house as a group. The exception stayed inside the minister’s gate. We couldn’t independently verify this information.
One Ms Anita Tendo, told our sister television station NTV, in an interview on Wednesday that she had been supplying the Col Engola’s escorts with tea and snacks on a daily basis.
“They still owed me some money,” Ms Tendo added without revealing the cost at which she was providing the tea and snacks to the soldiers.
Ms Tendo also did not say whether Sabiiti was one of those who owed her money.
Explainer: Allowances that escorts are entitled to
Accusations that superiors on the government payroll do not remit allowances of their subordinates such as drivers and bodyguards are not new to Ugandans. The topic returned to the discussion table on Tuesday after Pte Wilson Sabiiti gunned down Col Charles Engola, the junior Labour minister. In this explainer, Isaac Mufumba seeks to find out if there is more style to the subject than substance.
What sort of precedents are we looking at here?
In February of 2018, the ombudsman sensationally directed Lady Justice Elizabeth Kabanda Kibula to refund Shs630,000 in such allowances.
So what sort of allowances is a bodyguard entitled to?
Col Deo Akiiki, the Defence and Veteran Affairs spokesperson, and Mr Patrick Onyango, the Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson, said officers and soldiers seconded to government ministries, agencies and departments are entitled to monthly allowances paid by the agencies to which they are assigned.
“The ministries and departments usually have money that is intended for the minister to pay bodyguards. This money is not paid to ADCs (aide-de-camp). No. Immediately you are deployed there you submit your accounts and the money is paid on your account,” Col Akiiki said.
The mode of payment is aimed at averting the possibility of people stealing funds meant for the guards.
“The official payment of these soldiers is always paid and it is paid in a way that not even an ADC or military assistant can deny it to be paid to the soldier because the policy is they should always be paid on their accounts if there is any extra money to be paid,” Col Akiiki said.
So is it a one-size-fits-all?
No. The allowances paid to the escorts are not uniform. Mr Onyango said there are different rates for different agencies. It is not clear how the different rates are arrived at.
“Each ministry, each department, each agency, they all have their own way of protecting their people and facilitating their security,” Mr Onyango said without offering any figures.
Col Akiiki also could not explain why the rates vary.
“The allowances range from Shs200,000 to Shs500,000, depending on which ministry or agency. For example, all soldiers who work as escorts to our ministers in the Ministry of Defence are given an extra pay of Shs200,000. For the Ministry of Labour, it pays guards Shs300,000,” Col Akiiki said.
How about the lunch allowances?
The two officers revealed that escorts have no other entitlements other than the one off monthly allowance. Provision of lunch to soldiers and police officers on guard duty is dependent on the magnanimity of their principal.
“Provision of lunch is based on the goodwill of the minister. It is the goodwill of anybody. It is not an entitlement. Another one may decide not to give anything,” Col Akiiki said.
Col Akiiki was, however, quick to point out that the manner in which the lunch is provided might be a source of conflict, among escorts.
“Some people are generous. They say gentlemen we are going here, you get Shs50,000 for lunch and they definitely give it to their leader,” Col Deo Akiiki told Monitor.
The escorts are expected to draw from their one off monthly allowance and meet the cost of their lunch where the principal does not provide.
And out-of-pocket?
Where lunch allowances for the police are provided, it is at the rate of Shs11,000 per officer, but that, according to Mr Onyango, is for officers out on special assignments.
Similarly the Ministry of Defence provides out-of-station allowance if the person is going out of station, Mr Onyango explained.
Col Akiiki said the Ministry of Defence also gives out-of-pocket and subsistence allowances to its personnel who may be working out of station. Out-of-pocket caters to meals and water while subsistence caters to accommodation and other expenses. The amount varies depending on rank, but the minimum amount payable to a private is Shs55,000.
Those assigned to government ministries and departments are, however, not eligible for such allowances.
