Ugandan envoy expelled from UK

The envoy is alleged to have run a personal human trafficking ring under the guise of diplomatic privileges, smuggling Ugandan women into the UK under the pretext of hiring domestic workers.

NATIONAL | Three weeks ago, a Ugandan envoy quietly returned home from London, UK. But not quietly enough, it appears.

The envoy, one of the top leaders at the Ugandan Mission to the UK, is facing a barrage of Iran-like missiles and he could do with US defence capabilities to intercept or shoot down some of the projectiles.

And like Tel Aviv found out just how terrifying ballistic missiles can be, the allegations of human trafficking are giving the envoy severe headache.

The envoy has threatened to sue if his name appears anywhere in this story, saying the allegations against him are all made up.

Sources in the Foreign Affairs ministry have told the Nile Post that the envoy ran a human trafficking ring under the guise of diplomatic privileges, smuggling Ugandan women into the UK under the pretext of hiring domestic workers.

"British authorities uncovered that these women were later exploited and sold into domestic servitude, with [the envoy] profiting from their labour," the source said.

The allegations suggest that British intelligence had kept tabs on the envoy for months, culminating in the envoy's expulsion after one trafficked woman escaped, exposing fraudulent work papers.

In a brief response to queries from this news website last evening, the envoy said they were constrained by Public Service Orders to engage in the media without approval from the Permanent Secretary.

"I can only mention that whatever information you got seems concocted and full of falsehoods," they said.

The envoy seperately told a third party inquiring about the same that the domestic worker at the heart of the trouble was attempting to remain in the UK by trying to file for asylum against the envoy's best intentions.

Efforts to speak to Mr Vincent Bagiire, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the matter were futile, while Amb Nimisha Madhvani, who has been the envoy's line manager in the UK, could not be reached through her known mobile number.

This website can also confirm that the envoy was recalled three months ago and their tour of duty had ended.

However, the allegations trailing the envoy back to Kampala and admission that there was a domestic worker in the footnotes of the allegations appear to corroborate these revelations.

Sources have separately spoken of potential intrigue in foreign service because, the Nile Post has been told, the envoy was due a redeployment.

A fly on the wall has suggested that the envoy was due to be reassigned to Dubai, UAE, where a gambling scandal recently saw another envoy recalled.

A Pattern of Diplomatic Scandals

The UK envoy's disgrace is only the latest in a string of scandals involving Uganda's foreign missions.

Reports in August revealed that Ugandan diplomats in Dubai were embroiled in an illegal gambling operation within the consulate, prompting Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Muwada Nkunyingi to raise the issue in Parliament.

The expulsion of Uganda's envoy to Canada, Joy Ruth Acheng, also occurred in August after the Canadian government declared her persona non-grata.

Acheng’s departure added to the growing list of diplomatic embarrassments that include money laundering in Abuja and Algiers, embezzlement allegations in New York, tax evasion in Kinshasa, and mysterious fires at Uganda’s Embassy in Nairobi.