By Patrick Okino
President Yoweri Museveni has appointed former Ethiopian Airlines Chief Executive Officer, Girma Wake as consultant and advisor of the Uganda Airlines to assist in rectifying and fixing the management weaknesses in the airline.
Museveni directed the minister of works and transport, General Katumba Wamala to go ahead and appoint Wake to serve as acting CEO until he appoints a new head in July 2026, just five months away from now.
“Wake will work hand in hand with the Board until a substantive chief executive officer is appointed,” Museveni said in a letter to Wamala on 13th February 2026.
He also directed that the current CEO, Jennifer Bamuturaki be enabled to step aside immediately and handover to Girma and the Board of Uganda Airlines.
“The Board should go ahead and organize whatever emolument are due to her,” he noted.
Bamuturaki battles
Bamuturaki was appointed in July 2022 replacing Cornel Muleye who was suspended over mismanagement, abuse of office and later sacked.
During her tenure as CEO, she faced three investigations, including one by the parliamentary committee on Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises in 2024, a May 2025 probe of Uganda Airlines and then December 2025 by Criminal Investigation Directorate probe targeting top officials of the airline over allegation related to abuse of office.
COSASE probe focused on the sh237.8b loss incurred during the 2023/2024 financial year as stated in the Auditor General report.
The report indicated that Uganda Airlines didn’t have a board-approved staff structure and establishment to assess staff recruitment needs and status and didn’t have staff approved salary grades.
“As a result some staff earns very high salaries while others earns low salaries. This affected proper planning and budgeting for staff costs. As consequence, the company incurred an excess expenditure of sh4.9b on salaries and staff expenses,” COSASE stated.
Exorbitant salaries
The committee observed that the salaries paid to some categories of staff were exorbitant at the time when the airline was making losses. In financial under review, the total wage bill was sh14.3b compared to the previous year when the wage bill was sh7.2b. “The wage bill of the unapproved staff structure is one of the costs causing burden to Uganda Airlines.”
The committee also noted that there were disparities in the salaries of staff holding the same position. For example, the director of maintenance earns sh80m, the director flight operation earns sh40m,some cabin crew staff earns sh4m, while others earns sh2m.
“On examination of curriculum vitae of senior staff, the committee noted that some top officials lack minimum qualifications. For example Regina Tebasiima, the commercial director has only A’ Level certificate as the highest qualification. Bamuturaki doesn’t poses the required academic qualification stipulated in the Human Resource Manuel. The requirement for CEO is Bachelor`s degree and a post graduate/master. She only has bachelor degree in social work and social administration,” COSASE noted.
CID letter on 7th January, 2026 copied to head of State House Anti-Corruption Unit wrote to Uganda Airlines demanding extensive procurement, revenue and banking records.
“The Criminal Investigation Directorate in liaison with the SHACU is investigating a case of abuse of office, embezzlement of funds and false accounting against officials of Uganda Airlines relating to transaction,” the letter says.
CID, among other documents requested for: contact committee minutes approving the purchase of Boeing aircraft, procurement files for the fuel suppliers, aircraft leasing firms and ticketing agents; revenue accounting, banking and cash receipt records; and internal audit reports and expenditure linked to the launch of the London Route.
Sources privy to the investigations revealed that the probe came in the awake of a September State House meeting chaired by President Museveni in which significant financial losses accumulated under the current management was reviewed.
A special audit found that more than $9.2m (sh35b) in service fees continued to be charged to passengers after management scrapped the levy in July 2023. Auditors reported no evidence that money was banked, raising concerns of possible misappropriation.
Ticketing operations were also flagged after audits showed that agencies linked to airline staff including Nyanza Tour and Travel controlled over 90% of deeply discounted ticket class, potentially suppressing airline revenue and breaching conflict of interest rules.