The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
How a crook infiltrated the highest office in Uganda and caused untold disruption
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION TEAM | Erina Kagisha is the wife of the former commander of SFC, Maj. Gen. Don Nabasa. She works in the legal department of the Office of the President at Okello House as a legal officer. Two weeks before Nabasa was arrested on March 26th, 2026, Kagisha was called by the then commander of SFC, Maj. Gen. David Mugisha, and one Stephen Nuwagaba, a resident of State House who claimed to be a cyber expert. The meeting took place in the boardroom of SFC. The two men asked Kagisha to record a statement that would implicate her husband in wrongdoing. They did not specify to her the allegations she would make. However, they told her that if she complied, she would be paid handsomely, adding that the reward would change her life.
Kagisha was not willing to do such a thing, so she refused politely. The two men then changed strategy. They told her that when Nabasa was in China, they had recorded him speaking badly of her. They also said that they knew Nabasa was fond of marrying or dating women, then throwing them out. “You will soon follow a similar fate,” they told her. She refused to record a statement against her husband based on concocted stories for money. They also asked her to bring two other soldiers in Nabasa’s inner circle – his driver and two bodyguards – to also make false negative statements about him. They promised that when Nabasa returns from China, they will arrest him at the airport, and he would therefore not be a threat to her.
As a lawyer, she knew that recording such a statement on oath was dangerous. As a wife, she could not bring herself to betray her husband for money, no matter the amount. Sometime earlier, Kagisha had had a problem with her husband and had left their marital home (kwangana) and gone to live with her aunties in Muyenga. Mugisha and Nuwagaba knew this. But unknown to both men, Nabasa had gone to Muyenga and reconciled with his wife and she had returned home before he left for China.
When Nabasa returned from China, Kagisha told him of what had happened. Two days after that, Nuwagaba called Kagisha saying he was with Mugisha and they wanted to see her. He said they were going to arrest Nabasa and they needed to speak to her before that happened. She dismissed their claims and refused to see them. The next day, Nabasa came home and told Kagisha that he had been arrested. Thereafter, she drove him to Brig. Johnson Namanya’s home, who had also been arrested. She picked Namanya and then drove both officers to Kasenyi, where they were detained. After dropping them there, Nuwagaba sent Kagisha a picture of her driving out of Kasenyi. He said they were going to arrest her because she showed an NUP sign to soldiers when exiting.
When Nabasa was still in jail, Nuwagaba called Kagisha again. He asked her to go to SFC headquarters and make a statement against her husband, claiming Nabasa hates CDF Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba and has been speaking ill of him, accusing him of being a stooge of President Kagame of Rwanda. She refused to do so again. After this incident, Kagisha sought and was granted audience with President Yoweri Museveni. When she met with the president, she asked him for permission to go to London to attend a friend’s wedding, which the chief of state granted.
While at the airport, Mugisha and Nuwagaba called Kagisha again. They asked why she is travelling abroad. She said she was going for her friend’s wedding in the Netherlands. When she reached Schiphol airport, she bought another ticket to London. Just when she had just landed in London, someone calling himself Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, called her. He said: “I’ve seen you crossing a street in Amsterdam going to a wedding.” He then asked to meet with her. However, Erina had not even entered Netherlands. She had given that false information to only two people, Mugisha and Nuwagaba.
Immediately after Kakwenza’s call, Nuwagaba called Kagisha. He said he had been travelling all across Europe and would like to meet her and “give her a good time”. He added that he can fly to wherever she is, or he can fly her to where he is and they can meet. “Choose the option that serves you best,” he said. When she refused what felt like sexual advances, Nuwagaba accused Kagisha of getting a lot of money after meeting Museveni. Nuwagaba also said he had been told Nabasa had beaten her sometime back. “Why don’t you leave that man and marry me,” Nuwagaba said.
Nuwagaba’s role in disorganising people inside State House was not new, as The Independent has reported in the last two issues. In May of 2025, Susan Kasigye, then a police detective attached to State House, travelled with the president to Fort Portal to monitor PDM programs. One evening during that visit, the president called Kasigye to the state lodge. “Why are you giving out information from inside State House to people?” the President asked Kasigye. “Which information, Mzee?” Kasingye asked. The President simply answered, “You know the information you have given out.” Kasingye thought it was information about land grabbers which she was handling and told this to the President. Museveni said, “No, I am referring to information from State House.”
Kasingye was confused. She said she hasn’t given out information on anything at State House to anyone. Frustrated and thinking she is lying, the President asked her to go on leave for one month. “I will call you back,” he said, adding, “and don’t speak to anyone.” Then the President called in Lt Col. Betty Agaba, then a personal assistant to the President, and told her the same thing as he had told Kasigye. She denied giving out any information from inside State House. The president also sent her on a one-month leave.
During their forced leave, Kasingye and Agaba got information that a guy claiming to be a cyber expert was the one who reported them to the president. This “cyber expert” claimed that the two had been talking to Maj Gen James Birungi, then Chief of Defense Intelligence and Security. Agaba and Kasingye began an investigation and found that a guy called Nuwagaba, living inside Nakasero State House, had mapped his way into the president’s confidence. He had given the President chats between the two and Birungi, showing they were communicating with the now jailed intelligence chief.
It was then that Kasingye remembered that a file of one Nuwagaba had ever been sent to her by Agaba. The file said Nuwagaba had been tortured. The matter had two issues. One was to investigate the case of torture. The other was that Nuwagaba needed medical treatment. Kasingye’s job was to handle the investigation into torture. Kasingye also remembered that one day, a soldier in the security detail of the president had called her and said that his brother had been tortured by CMI on the instigation of the then speaker, Anita Annet Among. This time she referred the file to the CID and asked them to handle the matter. Nuwagaba did not show up at CID.
Agaba’s job was to handle medical treatment. She asked Nuwagaba to bring his medical papers so that he can be helped, which he never did. Instead, Nuwagaba returned with claims that he is a cyber expert, had studied at King’s College London, then joined the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and then with Mossad, the Israel intelligence service. He claimed, in a letter to the President, which he gave to Agaba, that while in Mossad, he had met a Rwandan spy who tried to recruit him into Rwandan intelligence and help them infiltrate Mossad but also give them the cyber skills he had. Part of these skills, he claimed in the letter to the chief of state, is to hack into phones. He also said he had evidence of rebels in Ngaramba, DRC training to fight Uganda. When Agaba examined the pictures he submitted, she realised they had been picked from social media.
In fact, sources say, Agaba had initially believed the young man’s tall tales but after a while, she realised he is a liar. He had come seeking medical help. Now he was presenting himself as a spy. She wondered why a sick person had abandoned the pursuit of medical care in favour of supplying intelligence. Agaba noticed that there was no evidence in the letter of his cyber skills. In the letter to the President, he claimed he had studied at Karo High School in Kiruhura in 2017 and that after that he had gone to Kings College, London, then worked with Mossad for ten years. The dates were so inconsistent, Agaba dismissed the claims on their face value.
After one month of their forced leave, Agaba and Kasingye were called by the President. They found the entire top command of SFC sitted with Museveni. At this meeting the President said he was chasing them out of State House. He said a few months earlier, he was lucky to meet a cyber expert brought to him by Brig Gen David Mugisha, also known as Bidi, commander of SFC. Museveni said Agaba was given a letter by this cyber expert that revealed terrible things Birungi was doing and yet she edited it, removing the serious accusations and gave the President a watered down version. The President said Kasingye saw Nuwagaba talking to him (the President) and ran and told Birungi that the cyber expert is with the President. He said that he was firing both of them from State House and sent both back to army and police. Then, he asked if they had anything to say.
Agaba explained that Nuwagaba came to her seeking medical treatment because of torture. He never told me anything about Birungi. “And that is what I reported to you, Mr President.” Kasingye said “if we are talking about the same Nuwagaba, that man is not a cyber expert but a cyber criminal. I saw his letter to you; I read it and found his claims fake. He claims to have been in Karo school in 2017. He could not have gone to Kings College London, then joined Mossad and be back in Uganda in 2024.” She said she had been approached by an SFC officer who said her brother had been tortured by CMI at the instigation of Among because he was sharing a girl with [Moses Hashim] Magogo, her husband. Before State House could handle the matter, Nuwagaba appeared on spaces with opposition activists and he seemed to be a proxy of the exiled author, Kakwenza.
In spite of their explanations, the President maintained his position, and both Agaba and Kasingye were dismissed from their jobs at State House.
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