By Investigative Desk – Kampala –
With corruption scandals closing in on him and State House investigators said to be in the final stages of releasing a damning report, embattled Ministry of Works and Transport official Andrew Muhangi has hatched a desperate survival trick — to hide his controversial Bushenyi farm project under the name of prominent businessman Al Hajji Hassan Basajjabalaba, using Basajjabalaba’s aide, Muhammed Lukwago, as the entry point.
According to inside sources, Muhangi has been jubilating over this “last card,” boasting that since Lukwago is illiterate, he can easily manipulate him into convincing his boss Basajjabalaba to “adopt” the farm as his own project. The plan, sources say, is to shield the billion-shilling Kakanju estate — built under a cloud of money laundering suspicions — by branding it as an investment of the seasoned tycoon, thereby making it harder for investigators to trace ownership back to Muhangi.
This maneuver comes after a string of failed attempts to sanitize his image and wealth:
Muhangi is already on the radar for acquiring 75 acres of prime farmland in Bushenyi at UGX 800 million and sinking over UGX 1 billion in livestock and plantations within just three months, far beyond the reach of a civil servant’s salary.
He was recently denied a lucrative position at the Uganda National Oil Company and Inspector General of Government (IGG) after vetting exposed forged academic papers, fraud scandals, and suspected involvement in the theft of FACE Technologies servers.
In Bushenyi, he faces accusations of land grabbing, closing public roads, exploiting farm workers, and sexual harassment against young women.
Witchcraft & Blackmail: Last month, whistleblowers revealed that Muhangi had resorted to witchcraft rituals in his office while simultaneously funding online smear campaigns against senior officials he suspected of exposing his scams.
His hired digital mercenaries, Phillip Muramira Bahika and Asingwire Edson alias Okoronko, are reportedly preparing to confess publicly and pin him as the mastermind of blackmail plots against top leaders.
Faced with this avalanche of scandals, sources say Muhangi sees Basajjabalaba’s name as his last cover. “He believes if the farm is perceived as belonging to Basajjabalaba, then State House investigators will hesitate to link it to him,” one insider revealed.
But analysts warn that this new plot only exposes Muhangi further. “It shows he is cornered and running out of tricks,” said an anti-corruption advocate. “You cannot hide behind Basajjabalaba’s name forever. Investigators are interested in how a mid-level officer built a billion-shilling estate in record time, not whose name is fronting it.”
The State House Anti-Corruption Unit is said to be finalizing a comprehensive report into Muhangi’s wealth and dealings, expected to detail the network of proxies, SACCO loans, and ghost investments he has used to launder funds. If confirmed, his attempt to drag Basajjabalaba’s name into his mess may only deepen the scandal.
For now, Muhangi remains a man on the edge — once a flamboyant “young tycoon,” now reduced to clutching at the shadows of bigger names to mask a collapsing empire of fraud.
