PACEID Officer Missing More Than 18 Hours Amid Dispute Over Agency’s Status

More than 18 hours after he reportedly disappeared, the whereabouts of Matthew Bagonza, a senior officer with the Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports and Industrial Development (PACEID), remain unknown, amid growing uncertainty over his alleged arrest.

Bagonza reportedly went missing on Tuesday morning under unclear circumstances and had not been seen by the time PACEID Chairman Odrek Rwabwogo addressed journalists on Wednesday. Rwabwogo said he immediately contacted security agencies, including the police and intelligence services, after learning that Bagonza was missing, but was unable to establish where the officer had been taken.

“I quickly went through all the security agencies, the police, DIS, SFC, and I wasn’t able to find where he was,” Rwabwogo said. He said he later travelled to Entebbe to seek clarification from President Yoweri Museveni, who, according to Rwabwogo, said he was unaware of Bagonza’s arrest and had not issued an order for his detention.

“So I drove to Entebbe and met the president, and the president told me that he had not given any orders to arrest this officer, and he was going to try and find out what the story is and the circumstances of his arrest,” Rwabwogo said. The disappearance has attracted public attention following social media posts from an X account bearing the name and photograph of Chief of Defence Forces Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba.

The account posted that authorities had started arresting officials in PACEID, adding that President Museveni had instructed him to “get all of them.” The posts came days after similar statements attributed to Muhoozi declared PACEID an illegal organisation and threatened arrests of its members.

“PACEID is an illegal organization. We shall start arresting its members immediately,” one of the posts stated. The account also directed all ministries, departments, agencies and local governments to suspend dealings with PACEID, warning that those who failed to comply would face consequences.

However, Rwabwogo said the circumstances surrounding Bagonza’s disappearance remained unclear, with no security agency having officially confirmed his detention. He said the only information available to PACEID by the time of the briefing was that Bagonza could soon be brought before court.

PACEID lawyers, he added, were preparing for possible charges while trying to establish which police station or court would handle the matter. The uncertainty has also triggered questions about the future of PACEID, with social media claims suggesting that the agency had been barred from working with government ministries, departments and agencies or was being wound up.

Rwabwogo dismissed the claims, saying PACEID was established on March 16, 2022, with a mandate to open export markets for Ugandan products before being placed under the Office of the President on May 25 of the same year. He said the organisation’s mandate could only be terminated by the President, who created it, and that Museveni had told him no such order had been issued.

Rwabwogo said PACEID has been working on improving food safety and export compliance, negotiating transport and infrastructure arrangements and facilitating low-cost financing for companies with confirmed export orders. He said the agency had surpassed its initial target of generating $6 billion in exports, contributing to an increase in Uganda’s exports from about $4.5 billion after the COVID-19 pandemic to approximately $13 billion.

He said PACEID was now entering a second phase focused on establishing aggregation, cooling and drying centres across 18 zones to address supply constraints affecting exporters. Rwabwogo warned that uncertainty surrounding government institutions and their mandates could undermine investor confidence, saying PACEID wanted to reassure domestic and international partners that its markets remained open and its commitments intact.

Bagonza’s reported disappearance comes against a wider backdrop of concerns in Uganda over unexplained arrests and disappearances, particularly involving individuals perceived to conflict with political or institutional interests.ruth