We all remember that BBC documentary that shook the internet, the one about Ugandan girls being lured to Dubai with promises of glamorous jobs, only to end up doing night shift in ways not found in any HR manual. If you haven’t watched it yet, I strongly advise you to change your friends, your neighbourhood, maybe even your church because at this rate, you might miss heaven’s Wi-Fi too. It was that viral, the kind that makes you want to switch off your mobile data and reflect.
At the centre of it all was Abbey Mwesigwa, the connector, the LinkedIn with no morals.
According to the BBC team, Abbey was the guy running things like an offshore recruitment agency for tears. He was out there talking about placement in hospitality jobs while the only hospitality was in his own pocket. But as fate would have it, just when BBC was about to unmask him on the final day to interview him for the documentary, Abbey vanished. Poof! Gone! Like salary one week after payday.
Now of course, this scandal dragged our entire Ugandan Embassy in the UAE into the mud. Questions started flying, how do such things happen under your roof, or at least under our flag? As we waited for answers , Ugandans the never digital detectives, dug up another scandal; in 2024, our Ministry of Foreign Affairs recalled our Ambassador from Dubai to explain how the consulate had allegedly turned into a full-blown casino.
Then, comes another banger with a development on our Abbey, Ambassador Zaake Kibedi, Uganda’s man in the UAE, came out and clarified that Abbey Mwesigwa the alleged mastermind isn’t even Ugandan! Like we all know from the documentary, he once worked as a bus driver in the UK before relocating to Dubai as per his ID, where he allegedly began this whole operation. He even had a UK driving licence.
Honestly, it takes a special kind of boldness to do evil and sign it from Uganda, with love. If this man isn’t Ugandan, then he surely trained with us maybe went through Kampala’s School of Street Smartness. But jokes aside, this whole saga should worry us. If a non-Ugandan can set up base, run operations, and access our people that easily, then my friend, our systems are as open as a city square. Maybe it’s time BBC gives us a Part Two , The Search for the Real Abbey Mwesigwa because at this point, even I’m starting to question my ancestry. I could be galivanting in a wrong country. Don’t mind my name if Mwesigwa isn’t from here then Sseggiriinya could be from anywhere, you gerrrit ?
*Written by Mark Peter Sseggiriinya
