Ono Bwino can exclusively report that on Monday night, former Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU) boss in charge of external relations and also the former African Union policy adviser Michael Katungi Mpeirwe was rushed to Murchison Bay Prison referral hospital after he collapsed.
On Monday, Buganda Road Chief Magistrate Ritah Kidasa Wanyama remanded Katungi, a Uganda People Defence Forces (UPDF) soldier, to Luzira Murchison Prison following an extradition request by the United States government over alleged drug trafficking, arms smuggling and terrorism-related offences.
Highly placed prison sources revealed to Ono Bwino that Katungi was first admitted at C-4 a ward where new remands are first admitted as the prison’s leadership organize to allocate new inmates a residential ward.
In the middle of the night, prisons wardens on the night duty rushed to the ward after inmates started shouting on top of their voices pleading for help.
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“There was a lot of panic because of this incident. Gunmen on night duty that day were placed on alert as prisoner wardens were called on to establish what was the cause of the chaos. They found him lying on the ground gasping for air while some inmates tried to remove their shirts to use them to fan him to save his life,” a source said.
He added that prisons wardens were also shocked because on the bus that took him to prison, after being remanded, Katungi did not show any sign of sickness, was jovial and made jokes with other inmates and prisons wardens on the bus.
As they were calling the ambulance to rush him to prisons hospital, some rushed to Officer in Charge’s Office, got a movable air conditioner to help him but Katungi’s condition worsened until the ambulance reached.
Warder leadership together with prisons wardens carried Katungi to the ambulance and rushed him to the sick bay which is not far away from C-4 where he was sleeping. Doctors worked hard to save his life until when his health condition normalized.
After recovering, Katungi was also shocked and wondered how and why such an incident happened to him at a time when he needs a lot of concentration to continue putting up a spirit legal fight challenging his extradition to United States of America.
Medical doctors at the prison’s hospital told him that the collapse was caused by high blood pressure. They advised him to stop overthink and panicking.
Even though he was taken back to A-1 where he is currently sleeping, doctors are closely monitoring him.
According to the indictment filed in the United States, Katungi is accused, together with Bulgarian national Peter Dimitrov Mirchev, Kenyan national Elisha Odhiambo Asumo and Tanzanian national Subiro Osmund Mwapinga, of conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, allegedly knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that the drugs would be unlawfully imported into the United States.
The four are also accused of conspiring to possess firearms, including machine guns and destructive devices, in furtherance of a drug trafficking offence, and of conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organisation.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, investigators allege that from at least September 2022, the suspects conspired to supply military-grade weapons to the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), one of Mexico’s most powerful transnational criminal organisations.
The alleged weapons included machine guns, rocket launchers, grenades, sniper rifles, anti-personnel mines, night-vision equipment, anti-aircraft weapons and surface-to-air missile systems.
U.S. authorities allege the suspects believed the cartel intended to use the weapons to facilitate large-scale cocaine trafficking into the United States.
On February 20, 2025, the CJNG was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organisation under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224.
According to the indictment, Mirchev allegedly recruited Asumo to obtain a fraudulent End-User Certificate (EUC) from an African country to conceal the intended destination of the weapons. Asumo is then alleged to have recruited Katungi, who in turn recruited Mwapinga.
Prosecutors allege the group obtained an end-user certificate from Tanzania authorising the importation of AK-47 rifles. Using that documentation, Mirchev and others allegedly exported a test shipment of 50 AK-47 assault rifles, magazines and ammunition from Bulgaria, intending that the weapons would ultimately reach the CJNG.
The indictment further alleges that the group later planned to supply weapons worth approximately Shs224bn including anti-aircraft systems and drones, while using falsified arms control documentation to disguise the true end user.
Court records also indicate that Mirchev had previously been implicated in supplying arms to convicted international arms trafficker Viktor Bout.
Katungi’s matter at Buganda Road was adjourned to 10th of July 2026 for further hearing of the application made by the Director of Public Prosecution after authorising all paperwork made by government of Uganda officials allowing his extradition.
