Ugandan whistleblower Sarah Kityo faces jail time on questionable charges
Blueprint whistleblowing prize-winner Sarah Kityo faces up to 14 years in jail if convicted in a trial that is set to commence in June.
Kityo was harassed, threatened, jailed and fired as head of Uganda’s netball federation after she demanded accountability for alleged corruption at the highest levels of government.
At a pre-trial hearing in Uganda on 10 April, the defence and prosecution agreed on documents to be used in her trial.
Kityo was arrested in 2023 and spent two nights in jail on an initial charge of embezzling 186 million Ugandan shillings (US$50 000) allocated to her federation for the national team to play in Namibia. A report subsequently produced by the Inspectorate of Government, a state ombudsman, later found the allegations had been based on fabricated documents. Despite this, prosecutors persisted with the case.
Kityo previously pointed out the charges were patently absurd as the US$50 000 she was accused of stealing was the entire allocation that funded 27 people, including the players, to spend 21 days in Namibia for a tournament they played in and won. She maintained the charges were fabricated against her because she blew the whistle on high-level corruption.
Last week Kityo and her lawyer got to hear for the first time that a new charge sheet had been drawn up containing additional and amended charges. She now faces the an embezzlement charge for the theft of 768 million shillings (US$200 000), as well as charges of forgery and uttering.
She believes, as with similar cases brought against her that were later thrown out, that these are trumped up charges aimed at intimidating and silencing her and other officials who backed her efforts to clean up governance and corruption in Ugandan sport.
“I have never stolen a cent and I will never do that. They must produce bank statements to prove they gave me 768 million shillings. They must prove that I committed forgery. These guys cannot win this case.”
Politically-motivated harrassment
In Kityo’s view another motive for bringing what she maintains are fabricated charges against her is to sink her political ambitions. She previously served as a youth MP and is currently campaigning again. Party primaries are scheduled for July and general elections will be held in January 2026.
“They are trying to de-campaign me because if I come to parliament I will cause trouble for them.”
If convicted, Kityo will be barred from holding public office for 10 years.
This is not the first questionable case brought against Kityo after blowing the whistle on alleged corruption. She was previously arrested and charged with fraud in a convoluted case that was later dropped almost a year later after the complainant recanted. For that case she was forced to spend five nights in jail before receiving bail.
During her detention she was informed that additional charges of criminal defamation had been laid against her by Patrick Ogwel, head of the National Council of Sports, after she accused him of demanding kickbacks to allocate funds to sports federations in Uganda. Nothing came of this charge either. Ogwel has denied receiving kickbacks.
Kityo she was retaliated against for cracking down on corruption and introducing governance reforms at the netball federation after she was elected president in 2021. The reforms included a whistleblowing policy, grievances procedures and strict financial controls.
She says when other sports federations showed signs of wanting to follow her lead, she became a threat to the powerful and politically connected sports council, which allocates public funds to Uganda’s various sporting bodies. The council invoked the intervention of Uganda’s First Lady and Minister of Education and Sport, Janet Museveni, who subsequently ordered Kityo to vacate her position, pending further investigation.
Shortly after this, various criminal proceedings were launched against Kityo.
The trial date for the only remaining case has been set down for 11 June.