Ugandan diplomats turn guns on each other in Abuja embassy saga

The recall of Mr Tusubira will likely bring to an end the nearly four years of simmering tensions that reached a boiling point in May this year, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs leadership continued to turn a blind eye.
The diplomatic mission, overseeing 15 Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) members and Equatorial Guinea, was sucked into wildly chaotic, messy, and unpleasant tensions, starting in mid-2024 with allegations of financial impropriety and money laundering levelled against the then Head of Mission, Mr Nelson Ocheger, his deputy Mr Alfred Nnam, and two others, in connection with the construction of the Shs19.7b chancery building.

The quartet was recalled to Kampala to pave way for back-to-back probes by the Inspectorate of Government (IGG), State House-Anti-Corruption Unit, Criminal Investigations Directorate, and Office of the Auditor General. The former IGG Ms Beti Kamya had directed that all diplomats at the High Commission be recalled, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs left Mr Tusubira there.

Mr Bagiire, then, posted a new team: Ambassador Philip Odida, in place of Ambassador Nnam, and Dr Sam Omara, to steady the Abuja ship pending findings of the investigations. The accused have since been cleared of any wrongdoing, but far from the order, the Mission morphed into a powder keg of tensions and chaos, giving off sparks.

On May 8 this year, Mr Tusubira lit the matchstick by calling Nigerian police to the High Commission premises on Mandara Close, off Mambila Street in the Maitama neighbourhood, to quell a strike by 17 local staff, who had gone for months without pay while the money sat in the accounts.

This newspaper broke the story of Nigerian police called to Uganda’s High Commission, in contravention of the diplomatic protocols and moreover without prior consultation from headquarters in Kampala. In the videos shared widely, Mr Tusubira was seen clashing with the Nigerian local staff, who accused him of “calling police” on them.
The incident, as a result of the simmering, wildly chaotic and unpleasant tensions, sent shockwaves inside the cloistered walls of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters in Kampala, and it was expected that Mr Tusubira would be recalled as soon as possible. He was not, much to the dismay of everyone.

Rather, Mr Bagiire on May 13, 2026, wrote to his Ministry of Finance counterpart, Mr Ramathan Ggoobi stripping Mr Tusubira of the accounting officer responsibilities, and replaced him with Dr Omara.
According to multiple sources, the Abuja Mission had long spiralled from disarray to total breakdown.
Mr Tusubira wrote to the Solicitor General questioning Ambassador Odida’s authority as head of mission, arguing that he was only assigned the position of Deputy High Commissioner. Mr Bagiire subsequently wrote to the Solicitor General, advising that it is important for Mr Tusubira, who holds the rank of principal officer in the Public Service, to follow the standing orders to understand his level.

Earlier in May, the High Commission came close to being thrown out of their rented premise on Mandara Close, Abuja, for non-response on whether they were interested in extending their lease. According to correspondence, the lawyers representing the High Commission’s landlord wrote to the Chargé d’affaires, Ambassador Odida, on February 25, 2026, referencing an earlier meeting on February 13, 2026, during which they did not receive a definitive response on the lease extension.
Consequently, the Mission was evicted in June this year, and rather than renting again, temporarily moved into the official residence of the High Commissioner previously occupied by Ambassador Ocheger.

Completion of the Shs19.7b chancery building has stagnated at 94 percent since October 2024. Construction works for the project, including a chancery building, an office block for consular services and four apartment blocks, commenced in July 2022 with an initial completion timeline of 87 weeks ending April 2024. The subsequent months have been a tug of war between Mr Tusubira and everyone else, from the contractor to technical supervisors.
The latest sequence of events was set in motion on August 11 when Mr Ggoobi terminated Dr Omara’s designation as accounting officer, and reinstated Mr Tusubira for the rest of the financial year.

Taken together, the May 13 and August 11 correspondences, Mr Tusubira on August 14 fired off an 18-page missive accusing Mr Bagiire of victimisation, and further levelled several corruption allegations against several officials in the ministry in relation to construction of the Shs19.7b chancery building.
“The construction project in Abuja was literally one pitiable mess of a project, primarily feeding pockets of the project manager, the contractor, contract management team (CMT) and beneficiaries at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kampala. Nothing fundamentally was happening on site,” Mr Tusubira alleged, the letter copied to the minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Adonia Ayebare and his deputy, Mr Haruna Kasolo, head of Public Service Lucy Nakyobe, the IGG and Auditor General.

Contacted over the matter, Mr Bagiire downplayed Mr Tusubira’s claims of victimisation, and maintained that the recall was triggered by his calling of Nigerian police to the diplomatic mission.
“No officer calls the police on the embassy that enjoys privileges and immunity without clearance from headquarters. As for his allegations, they are redundant. Rather than send them to the investigating institutions, he writes to me and copies them,” Mr Bagiire said.

Ambassador Ayebare said he was yet to inquire into the matter, but re-echoed his speech at the assumption of office on August 11 that indiscipline and a chaotic working environment in Foreign Service will not be tolerated any longer.