BUSEGA EXPRESSWAY SCANDAL PROBE WIDENS! Investigators Zero In on Eng. Isaac Wani, Ex-UNRA Director of Network Planning & Engineering and Former Contracts Committee Chair, Now National Roads Commissioner at Works Ministry
The noose is tightening in the explosive Busega-Mpigi Expressway scandal as investigators widen their probe to scrutinise the role of Eng. Isaac Wani, the current Commissioner for National Roads at the Ministry of Works and Transport.
RedPepper has established that investigators are now examining decisions made by Wani during his tenure at the former Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA), where he served as Director of Network Planning and Engineering and chaired the Contracts Committee during the procurement of the controversial Busega-Mpigi Expressway project.
At the heart of the investigation is a burning question: How did a project initially estimated at about Shs600 billion balloon into a multi-trillion-shilling undertaking?
Highly placed sources say investigators are reviewing procurement records, contract approvals and technical decisions taken during the early stages of the project to establish whether due procedures were followed.
Documents seen by RedPepper indicate that the spiralling costs were largely driven by massive design alterations, contractor compensation claims triggered by government delays, and prolonged funding interruptions that brought construction to a standstill.
The records further reveal that the project was initially conceived as a road capacity enhancement before government later resolved to construct a full-fledged expressway. However, investigators are questioning why procurement proceeded without first redesigning the project to meet expressway standards.
The documents also point to serious internal disagreements between suspended Head of Design Eng. Patrick Muleme and then Director of Network Planning and Engineering Eng. Isaac Wani, disagreements that reportedly hampered implementation of the multi-billion-shilling project.
A January 2023 UNRA Board report reportedly faulted both Wani and Muleme for failing to comply with established management procedures after allegedly altering the road alignment without obtaining approval from the UNRA Board.
Investigators are now expected to establish who authorised the controversial changes, whether procurement processes were compromised and whether the alterations directly contributed to the astronomical increase in project costs.
The widening probe follows President Yoweri Museveni’s dramatic intervention after allegations that billions of taxpayers’ money had been looted through the project.
In a June 26, 2026 letter addressed to Inspector General of Government Justice Aisha Naluzze, Museveni ordered the suspension and investigation of senior engineers Patrick Muleme, Raymond Kiyaga and Dickens Ahimbisibwe over the alleged embezzlement of funds meant for the 23-kilometre Busega-Mpigi Expressway and its 20 kilometres of access roads.
The President also directed that Ministry of Works Permanent Secretary Bageya Waiswa step aside to pave way for investigations.
In the strongly worded letter, Museveni questioned how government borrowed about Shs600 billion from the African Development Bank to finance the expressway, yet only about 40 percent of the work had reportedly been completed despite the money being exhausted.
He further alleged that corrupt engineers diverted the road from the already compensated route and instead redesigned it to pass through land in which they had interests, resulting in fresh compensation claims and a dramatic increase in project costs.
“A road that was supposed to cost Shs600 billion is now being put at Shs1.3 trillion. These thieves must be destroyed,” Museveni reportedly wrote while directing Justice Naluzze to spearhead the investigations alongside his special auditor, Henry Tumwiine.
With investigators now turning their attention to former procurement and technical decision-makers, the probe appears to be entering an even more explosive phase.
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