KAMPALA. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of telecommunications company MTN Uganda, Wim Vanhelleputte has this evening been deported.
In a letter signed by Internal Affairs Minister Gen Jeje Odongo, the MTN Uganda boss wrote indicating that Wim was to stay outside Uganda indefinitely.
Police spokesman Fred Enanga reconfirmed this and indicated that Mr Vanhelleputte was already at Entebbe airport.
“He’s already at the airport and destined for Belgium around midnight. Over similar circumstances of national security,” Enanga said.
Mr Vanhelleputte’s deportation comes days after the arrest and deportation of three other senior employees of the telecommunications giant. These include the chief marketing officer, Mr Olivier Prentout, Annie Tabura general manager for sales and distribution at MTN Uganda and the mobile money general manager Ms Elsa Mussolini
Ms Mussolini said she was ejected from the country for allegedly inciting violence by funding Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine, the Kyadondo East MP.
There has, however, been an ongoing investigation against more MTN staff for allegedly compromising National Security using their positions at the company.
The staff members being investigated as part of a classified investigation have since recorded statements with the Special Investigations team. The investigations began in July 2018 after the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) raided their call centre in Mutundwe, a Kampala suburb and confiscated the company servers.
According to a source in Security circles, government of Uganda at the time had received intelligence information related to tax evasion, money laundering and espionage.
For the last six months, the collected data was being analyzed until a month ago when investigations under the supervision of Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGP) Sabiiti Muzeeyi started.
