David Nyekorach Matsanga is not new to controversy and mention of his name reverberates like an echo in several African cities, carrying with it imaginations of the glitterati.

Matsanga, who led Joseph Kony’s delegation to the peace talks with Uganda between 2006 and 2008, is known as a Mr-fix-it, and has had close connections to among others Zimbabwe President Robert Gabriel Mugabe and Sudan president Omar Bashir, but is now linked to accusations of forgery, bribery and money laundering, in relation to the accusations he made against International Criminal Court (ICC) President, Ms.  Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi.

According to the ICC, ‘Matsanga forged invoices and bank statements, and named bank account holders who either do not exist or do not come from the country he cited’.

He claimed that the ICC president discreetly received more than US$17 million from Sudanese organisations to bribe witnesses for the court to indict Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir. Mr Matsanga has been a vocal anti-ICC activist and has accused the court of using its processes to punish African leaders, including Mr Bashir.

The ICC issued its first warrant of arrest against President Bashir on March 4, 2009, and the second one on July 12, 2010, but he has not been arrested yet by any signatory to the Rome Statute that established the ICC.

In a statement, ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah said the allegations had been taken through the Independent Oversight Mechanism (IOM) by the institution and found to be false.

The IOM is an independent body established by the Assembly of States Parties as an inspection, evaluation and investigation mechanism for the ICC.

“These allegations concerning the supposed involvement of the president with payments to Sudanese rebel groups are based on forged evidence and are, therefore, demonstrably untrue,” Mr Abdallah said in a statement.

Ms Gurmendi, an Argentinian who rose to the helm of the ICC in March 2015, was also accused of having money in several bank accounts, which the IOM said was not evidence of misconduct.

Who is Matsanga

In his early 60s, Matsanga first came to prominence after the fall of former Ugandan president Apollo Milton Obote of the Uganda Peoples Congress, a regime he served as a security operative working with the National Security Agency (NASA). He later fled into exile in the United Kingdom, where he reportedly embarked on academic pursuit, attaining a Doctorate. At the time he also tried his hand in politics, opposing the National Resistance Movement (NRM/A) government. Between 2006 and 2008, Mr Matsanga was part of warlord Joseph Kony’s delegation to the Uganda peace talks that were chaired by embattled former South Sudan Vice President Dr Riek Machar.

Since then he has been an on-and-off confidant to several embattled African leaders including Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Bashir (Sudan) and most recently Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya.

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The recently announced move to reduce the number of civil servants in the country has drawn strong criticism from the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).

Recently, political leaders of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) led by President Yoweri Museveni held a series of meetings at the National Leadership Institute (NALI) in Kyankwanzi where a number of issues including the reduction were discussed.

However, addressing a press conference at the FDC offices in Najjanankumbi today, the party Deputy Secretary General Harold Kaija said the NRM has gotten its priorities upside down because the reduction will foment unemployment.

Kaija, who deliberated on a number of sticky issues, added that the NRM government is extravagant, spending huge sums on ‘useless activities’ like the Kyankwanzi retreat. Other areas of fiscal imprudence, he said, include the disbursements to State House and to the Ministry of Defence.

On top of its ‘many’ failures, the NRM government has also increased the number of districts, which Mr Kaija said, would inflate the public service wage bill.

“The newly created five districts need chairpersons, members of parliament, RDCs and other leaders who all need a salary which in turn leaves no money in the government treasury to facilitate the payment of civil servants,” he said.

Kaija also noted that civil servants such as police, teachers and doctors greatly contribute to the development but hastened to add that in Uganda they are the worst paid and have lived under poor conditions over the last 30 years.

Linking the retrenchment to the currently trending topic of the Shs 1.3 trillion ‘bailout’ to individuals and companies that are allegedly distressed, Mr Kaija said the money should instead channel it to increasing the civil servants salaries.

“The government should look at increasing civil servants’ pay than bailing out these tycoons that are already rich,” he said adding in its 30 year rule the NRM government has not built a single hospital.

“The hospitals around were constructed by former presidents like Obote and Amin;  health centres are the only ones that have been put up by Museveni’s government but they lack manpower and equipment with no drugs,” Mr Kaija said, adding: “The president and his close relatives and officials get treatment from abroad so care less about the public welfare.”

He also spoke against land-grabbing, citing the recently-resurfaced case of the UBC land that had been controversially acquired by Burahya MP Margaret Muhanga.

“The earlier we see this government off the better for the people of Uganda” Kaija said, adding that the government is full of ‘hungry hyenas and vampires’ that do not care about the well being of the citizens.

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