Uganda National Journalism Awards 2015 – Investigative reporting finalists

Honourable mention – Israel transfers unwanted refugees to Uganda by Raymond Mujuni, Uganda Radio Network

Runner-up – Police bribery along Uganda’s Northern Corridor by Samuel Ssettumba, NTV Uganda

**Winner – Entebbe Airport yellow fever scam exposed by Edris Kiggundu, The Observer

Mr Kiggundu is the Political Editor of The Observer newspaper. He joined The Observer in March 2005 as a fresh graduate from Makerere University. During his time there he has risen from a freelance reporter to a senior editor.
Kiggundu is a graduate of Sociology and Political Science from Makerere University. He is also an Edward R. Murrow Fellow at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA, and a Research Associate with the Global Development Network (GDN), a network of international researchers.

This article is about a racket of workers at Entebbe International Airport that is minting millions of shillings daily from unsuspecting travellers to China by extorting money from them to process a yellow fever vaccination certificate.
The Observer discovered that first and foremost China does not require travelers from Uganda to carry along this certificate (the visa requirements to China are clearly stated on the embassy’s website: http://www.chinese-embassy.info/africa/visa-uga.htm). Secondly this racket persists because it is lucrative while the supervisory structures that would have fought it are either weak or compromised. On average, up to Shs10 million is extorted per day.

After the story was published, Dr James Eyul, the administrator of Kazuri Medical, which is contracted by the Civil Aviation Authority to provide medical services at the airport got back to The Observer first to thank the paper for exposing the racket and secondly to announce that stringent measures had been put in place to ensure that the medical facility is not used by conmen.