CONFESSIONS: How Supa Mamas club CEO Bridget allegedly scammed poor women
In March this year, a group of old women—married and unmarried, educated and uneducated—stormed Jinja Road Police Station.
Here they registered a case of scam, accusing their fellow woman, identified as Bridget Kalungi of fleecing them of their hard earned money.
A general inquiry file referenced GEF 100/ 2024 was eventually opened.
They claim Bridget, who is in her 40s and with four kids, pulled off this alleged scam while posing as the CEO of Supa Mamas Foundation.
The group’s patron is Sarah Ssentongo Kisauzi, a Ugandan actress most known for her role as Nalweyiso, the mean mother-in-law, in the 2013 NTV television drama series Deception who has since distanced herself from Bridget’s alleged scam saying her duties only stopped at being the group’s face without any administrative role.
The money lost is said to be in millions.
And this is the same money she has been reportedly using to finance her lavish holidays and romantic getaways to Zanzibar and some local expensive resorts.
She also often jetted to places like Dubai, China and others with her husband Geoffrey Dickson Lubega and their four children.
After realising that all the tricks to milk the same women have been exhausted, she closed shop and is suspected to have fled the country and is hiding in Canada with her family.
The victims are now planning to petition and coordinate with the Uganda High Commission in Ottawa – Canada and Canada authorities including Interpol to make sure Bridget pay for her alleged sins and have their monies recovered.
“We appeal to the government and any organization, institution or person that can help us to bring Bridget Kalungi to justice, for the sake of not just us, but all others who have fallen victim to her over the years. Kindly come to our rescue and bring her back to Uganda to face the law,” the victims are appealing.
WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED
This publication has learnt that these women were followers of Bridget’s Facebook page called Supa Mamas Foundation which has since closed.
The page offered educational leadership advice, transformational life coaching skills and as well relationship counseling.
“We chose to follow her because she looked smart, principled, full of good advice and seemed to have a heart for helping vulnerable women,” said one of the fleeced victims.
After gaining followership and winning their trust, Bridget reportedly invited the women to join a WhatsApp group she had formed with the goal of saving for personal causes.
The saved money was to be paid out at the end of December, 2023. However, up-to-date, they haven’t retrieved any single coin.
It has now emerged that apart from this saving group, she had opened up other groups for land purchase, trading and others depending on her followers’ interests.
She would allegedly make the groups exclusive to each scam and you could never tell what was going on in another group, reveals one of the victims.
If anyone dared to question or challenge her, they were immediately gagged by being kicked-off the group, blocked from Facebook and blocked from Bridget’s phone. She would then threaten them with criminal charges such as cyberbullying. People were scared of her for that reason.
It goes without mention that with each scheme, Bridget reportedly demanded a registration fee sometimes as high as Shs300,000 per person before joining.
SAVINGS SCHEME/ INVESTMENT CLUB SCAM
Under this group, some women were housewives hoping to start online businesses, some had office jobs, some had small trading businesses, and some had market stalls while others were just venturing into business as part of their pending retirement plans.
“These ladies are not well off but were trying to use the savings culture to help raise their household incomes or pay for a particular project or goal such as medical treatment, house renovation, business capital, school fees and so forth,” one of the victims adds.
Bridget reportedly opened a bank account for this purpose and acted as a treasurer.
The women would end up entrusting their monies with her in the name of savings without suspecting any foul play.
“These women are ordinary, hard working Ugandan ladies with each penny saved coming from their sweat and sacrifice. All they wanted was to improve their circumstances or the circumstances of others. They did not deserve to be treated like this.”
However, all their plans and dreams have reportedly been shattered. Bridget reportedly had other plans and by the time they smelt a rat, she was already on a plane to Canada.
The excuse she gave to the women for not accessing their savings in December 2023 was because of a directive Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) to all companies to update their details to indicate their beneficial ownership. And those who did not meet the deadline or never complied have had their accounts frozen.
Bridget claims the Supa Mamas Foundation bank account held in Housing Finance Bank was affected up to date.
Here are some of the savings scheme/ investment club scam victims’ stories behind their savings and the consequences following the loss of these savings.
LORNA: She is currently battling Cancer. She is supposed to travel for treatment to Nairobi. She had saved Shs3million with Bridget which her family had helped raise. Bridget could not account for her savings despite the lady begging and at one point threatening to go to Bridget’s home with her children and undress in protest till Bridget pays her. It all fell on deaf ears. Up-to-date she has never been paid and her health continues to deteriorate.
HEARING PROBLEM VICTIM: Another lady victim has a hearing problem and is in danger of losing her job. She had saved Shs4million to buy a hearing aid which actually works for her because her case was so severe, surgery couldn’t even help. She is yet to get her money. Here is her story: “I have a very big health challenge that’s why I was saving every single shilling that landed in my hands. I need to have a hearing aid fixed. I was to travel to Nairobi in the second week of January 2024 since I was expecting payment on 20th December, 2023. When Bridget delayed to pay I pushed the appointment to February 19th, 2024 since she had promised to get a loan and clear me by 15th February. Even after telling her that my job is at stake, she has not bothered to clear me. Is she waiting for me to lose my small job? Will she take care of me and my family? Since March my blood pressure has never been the same. I get panic attacks whenever I think about my job. And Bridget is still ignoring me.”
KADAAMA FEES SAVINGS: Another victim is a lady who had been entrusted by her sister working as a maid in Saudi Arabia to keep her money meant for kids’ school fees. She thought she was secure, saving the school fees with Bridget till December, 2023. Right now the whole family thinks she stole the money and she has suffered depression and constant abuse from relatives because Bridget allegedly ran off with the savings.
MENGO S.S VICTIM: Another poor lady had a very clever child who won a coveted place at Mengo SS. She had managed to raise part of the money for school fees but needed a small top up from her savings with Bridget or she would lose the place. Bridget reportedly lied to her that she could not withdraw any funds till December, 2023 as the account could only be accessed twice a year. The lady lost the place and her child had to sit home for a full term till she got another spot at another school.
JANET: This had saved to purchase furniture for her mother. “I wanted to make my mother’s shabby village house become like a Kampala house. But up to now she’s still living in the Village-village instead of Village-Kampala. If it were not for Bridget all our village mates were going to see Kampala from my mother’s house.”
SUSAN: For her, the savings were meant to support her mother’s business. “I came from abroad to try to help out my mum because she had become suicidal after her business collapsed during lockdown. I saved with Bridget so that I could help her out. But all the Shs3.8 million is gone and I am back to zero and my mum’s health is also not doing very well. She thinks I don’t want to support her but I have failed to explain to her because I am ashamed and she will also be disappointed that I chose to trust saving with a stranger instead of her.”
DOREEN: She was orphaned at the age of 11, raised her siblings till maturity, and decided to continue opening her home to desperate children. She confesses thus: “The children whom I foster had taken many years without really enjoying a proper Christmas because funds were always tight. I decided to save for them right from January so that by December, 2023 I had enough money to give them a proper treat with new clothes, nice food and outings. But Bridget ran off with my savings and my dream. The children were very, very disappointed because I had already told them about our pending exciting Christmas. Our Christmas was miserable.”
CHRISTINE: This was saving money to help sponsor an HIV+ and cancer survivor single mother who had been abandoned with three children by her husband, one of whom was epileptic. The lady was so full of joy that things were about to change for her as she and her children would sometimes survive on dry tea for the day. They did not even have a mattress to sleep on. This plan also died as Bridget took the money that was supposed to help her set up a charcoal and market stall. The lady is currently back to begging.
SUICIDE WATCH: Perhaps the saddest story is of a lady who previously ran a market stall and who had saved with Bridget. After Bridget scam was exposed in March this year, the lady was found about to kill her three children with poison laced food, as well as her hanging. She had reached the end of her strength and had lost all hope. She had saved Shs2 million with Bridget and was hoping to boost her business stall. Bridget reportedly denied her access to her money, claiming her time period had not yet matured. The lady says that if only she had gotten her Shs2 million, it would have been enough to pull her and her children out of the dire poverty they were in. Her market stall had long since closed so she resorted to borrowing from money lenders who were now becoming aggressive.The poor lady had to be put on suicide watch and counselling while her children were taken to be looked after at the counsellor’s residence.
Another lady contemplating suicide was lucky to be quickly paid off by Bridget for fear of her story getting out.
TRADING SCHEME SCAM
Under this scheme, hatched in 2023, Bridget presented another group of ladies with an opportunity to venture into trading items like handbags, shoes, Gomesi materials, School bags and so forth, from China and Dubai.
Bridget would fly there, do the procurement and handle the logistics. This was a dream come true for those ladies who were not able to afford air tickets, Visa fees and accommodation just to purchase a few items.
Bridget would reportedly send pictures of very beautiful things at very cheap prices, which excited the women.
Money to purchase was deposited on her account by the ladies but Bridget said she would communicate shipping and taxes as they came up.
They got the shock of their lives when she sent them the next bill.
For example, a bag bought at Shs25000 would have a shipping and tax bill of Shs50000 making the cost price come to Shs75000.
Yet in downtown Kampala the same bag was being retailed at Shs45000.
Another shock would come when the stock finally arrived only to find items of poor quality.
“Till today many ladies are still in shock. Others had to dump the stock at market prices in order to recover a fraction of what they spent. There were tears all over as the women’s hopes crashed. Some ladies had secretly taken money out of their family businesses to venture into this, thinking they would put the money back in without their husbands noticing. Sadly, they were caught and marriages are on the rocks because of this,” said one of the victims.
LAND SCHEME SCAM
Another alleged scam involved land purchase. Bridget allegedly enticed the ladies who had never had dreams of owning land into saving with her. She told them after accumulating enough savings; they would look for good land as a group and later raise money to build apartments.
They jumped right in and deposited money on her accounts monthly.
After the ladies had collected a reasonable amount and it was time to buy the land.
“She wanted to buy land in an estate that’s around Shs30million or less. Bridget started suggesting that we buy land for the apartments in Katosi-Mukono. Time for purchasing land reached and members found good, affordable land around Bweyogerere, Kira Municipality. Bridget started giving excuses saying we shouldn’t rush. She started pretending to be sick,” narrates one of the victims.
She adds: “Members started exchanging words and insults with her, demanding their money back. She gave us four months to pay back. She has been paying in bits. We think she had invested the money for herself elsewhere.”
RICE SCHEME SCAM
As if that was not punishment enough, she enticed some of the ladies into a rice business where she (Bridget) would personally buy “very good quality” rice from Tanzania and bring for the ladies to buy for resale. The ladies put in the cash and as usual, the rice turned out to be broken, full of stones and even more expensive than the good one found in supermarkets.
She had hammered them once again.
HOW BRIDGET PULLED ALL THE SCAMS OFF
The question remains how Bridget managed to pull off these scams without detection.
“You see, like most conmen, Bridget knew how to manipulate, intimidate and manage vulnerable people. She would make the groups exclusive to each scam,” one of the victims reveals.
She goes on: “You could never tell what was going on in another group. If anyone dared to question or challenge her, they were immediately gagged by being kicked-off the group, blocked from Facebook and blocked from Bridget’s phone. She would then threaten them with criminal charges such as cyberbullying. People were scared of her for that reason.”
She was also reportedly fond of wetting the beaks of policemen in case they cornered her.
“One lady who was scammed of her money for travelling to Dubai was almost jailed for cyber bullying. As a result we all remained in the dark about what was going on in other groups and continued to save with her. One lady almost got through to us with her story of Bridget’s thieving ways but Bridget calmed us down, told us that the lady was just jealous of her success and called the lady a “monitoring spirit”.
BRIDGET FINALLY BUSTED
It all blew up in December, 2023 when women who had been saving with Bridget were eager to get their monies back.
It was around the same time when the deadline given to companies to update their details to indicate their beneficial ownership by Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) was expiring.
And those who did not meet the deadline or never complied have had their bank accounts frozen.
Bridget reportedly had the perfect excuse not to pay the women as she claimed hers were frozen too.
“We believed her and continued to pray and encourage her, saying that though it was an inconvenient we would wait patiently for a couple of weeks for her to sort the account issue,” one of the victims explains.
Two weeks turned into two months with Bridget looking for answers.
She reportedly told them that there was an issue with one of the signatories not being registered properly with Housing Finance Bank and therefore an investigation was ongoing to resolve it.
And with this excuse, they had to wait till May, 2024.
She also encouraged them to just continue saving and get paid maybe in December of this year.
“Please note that several people who had connections with the bank had offered to help but she was not responding to them. She also cooked up a story that she had to travel abroad for a nine month course and would therefore be largely unavailable till she returns after the course,” another victim stresses.
In March this year, the savings scheme/investment club victims decided enough was enough.
They (women) did their private investigations and discovered that Shs100million had been withdrawn from the bank account they were using to save the money.
There was only Shs1million left.
The last transaction (withdrawal) was in January 2024.
It also came to light that the account had never been frozen per USRB directive as she continued to withdraw at will, with the help of her two other signatories identified as Justine Kyanjo Kivumbi and Catherine Nagawa.
The matter was reported at Jinja Road Police Station and a general inquiry file referenced GEF 100/ 2024 was eventually opened.
Justine was briefly arrested and currently on police bond but Catherine is on the run.
“We confronted Bridget immediately and she confessed to diverting our money to other causes without our permission. We filed a case against her with the police in a bid to recover the money. She was not willing to give us a time frame in which we would be paid. A big social media storm erupted and that is when we learnt that there were very many other victims of her scams starting right back in High School when she would “eat” money that her fellow students had saved for end of year parties,” this publication has been told.
A story also came up about how she would shift her children from school to school at the end of the year, having not cleared school fees from the previous school.
We are told Bridget, husband Geoffrey Dickson Lubega and children fled to Canada.
Her husband’s alleged source of income is also a story for another day.
Bridget once operated a daycare centre in Kira in 2022 but it’s alleged that she closed it after just a year, leaving her workers unpaid.
THREATS
The victims are now said to be still in a state of shock and fear.
“We have been mocked, ridiculed and even received death threats from one “PATRICIA KATS” on her Facebook page, claiming she knows where we live and will come to “end” us,” says another victim.
“Most of the ladies are in very poor mental and physical health. Bridget made us lose all hope and trust in humanity, Most looked up to her, they clung to her every word, seeing her as a way out of poverty, as a way to meet and socialize with people they never thought they would meet ,and as a source of guidance. She was a beacon of hope for them. Instead, she chose to crush the very women she had pledged to help, leaving them poor, heartbroken and hopeless as she sets her family up in Canada, using our stolen funds. They did not deserve this. She’ll never see peace and her life will be full of hard work. I am sure she is haunted by her actions right now and ever shall be,” another victim cursed.
“We appeal to the government and any organization, institution or person that can help us to bring Bridget Kalungi to justice, for the sake of not just us, but all others who have fallen victim to her over the years. Kindly come to our rescue and bring her back to Uganda to face the law,” the victims are appealing.
Bridget has been contacted for a comment.
DEAR READER, CALL/TEXT/WHATSAPP 0777959024
FRAUD IN BANKS, BETTING FIRMS, CHEATERS, DIVORCE FILES, S3X NETWORKS, S3X FOR MARKS, HARASSMENT OF ALL NATURE AT OFFICE BY YOUR BOSS, CHILD NEGLECT, WETLAND OCCUPATION, ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION, VIDEOS, IMPUNITY or CORRUPTION (in government agencies/ MDA’s, NGOs, Ministries, Private sector), FIGHTS IN OFFICES, JOB WARS/ WITCH HUNT, URA TAX FRAUD/NON-COMPLIANCE, CHEATING MONEY LENDERS, BUSINESS WRANGLES, SUBSTANDARD PRODUCTS, GOLD SCAMS, NSSF REMITTANCES NON COMPLIANCE, LAND ISSUES, INTERNAL AUDIT REPORTS EXPOSES, POLITICAL WRANGLES…ETAL.
SOURCE PROTECTION/CONFIDENTIALITY IS OUR NO.1 PRIORITY.
About Post Author
