Ministers are increasingly skipping Parliament sessions and sirens on their lead cars have gone silent in the wake of inquiries into and arrests over alleged theft of iron sheets.

One pattern observed with ministers is that their convoys are racing without sirens, a departure from previous practice where the lead cars would shove other motorists off the streets and on occasion drive the wrong way in clearing the way for the principal. 

In a survey conducted, members of the public say the sirens have gone silent, with some intimating that other ministers are now moving with their luggages and passports.

It is also reported that some ministers no longer come back home, while others now prefer using private cars.

The reported reduced siren noise and discipline of ministers on the roads come at a time police are awaiting directions from the public prosecutor on whether to arrest the ministers and other notable politicians implicated in the iron sheet saga.

The scandal took a dramatic turn after President Museveni, who had previously ordered police and the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) to join State House detectives to conduct criminal investigations, in an April 13 letter dubbed “ministers who benefitted from the Karamoja iron sheets thieves and subversive.” 

Investigators and Cabinet sources said the arrests, which mirror a similar crackdown over procurement-related corruption during Uganda’s hosting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) in 2007, has spread fear and panic among ministers.