'Dirty' Money: What Besigye, Mafabi, Amuriat told FDC probe committee

The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) elders committee, tasked with investigating allegations of top party officials receiving 'dirty' money from President Museveni, has cleared the FDC Secretary General, Mr Nandala Mafabi, and Mr Patrick Amuriat, the party president, of the accusations.

The committee found that Dr Kizza Besigye, the FDC founding president and whistleblower, failed to present sufficient evidence to support the allegations.

According to the report presented to the National Council on July 28, Dr Besigye expressed concern about money kept at his home by Mr Mafabi in September 2021. However, the FDC is within its rights not to disclose the source of its finances, as provided in the party constitution and practices.

In this article, Monitor brings a brief of what the aggrieved and accused parties told the probe committee;

Dr Kizza Besigye, the FDC founding president and the whistleblower while interfacing with the committee on June 6, noted that, in September 2021, Mr Nandala Mafabi asked him to keep for him money which was to a tune of Uganda Shs500m but later only Shs300m was delivered by the latter.

“Around the same period, Dr Besigye was contacted by a source from State House saying there was some money received by some FDC Party leaders from State House.  This made Dr Besigye to cause a meeting with some of the leaders who were directly concerned about the matter but that meeting and other subsequent meetings did not yield results,” the report read in parts.

Dr Besigye also revealed to the committee that within the same period of time, he was visited by a colleague [names withheld] who asked him to cause a formal agreement with National Resistance Movement (NRM), since there were already some [FDC] contacts with Museveni.

The same report indicates that; “Dr Besigye further informed the Committee that after getting the information from a person working in State House, he reached out to President Amuriat and asked him whether he had received any money from Hon. Mafabi. President Amuriat admitted having received some money from Hon. Mafabi to the tune of Uganda Shillings 280 million which was intended to help the Party during the electoral process. Dr. Besigye added that that is when the bad blood between him and Hon. Mafabi began to emerge.”

The FDC founding president alluded to the committee that there were several meetings which attempted to iron out the matter, including the one convened at the residence of Mr Wasswa Birigwa in early 2021, but all efforts were in vain.

Besigye reported that; “In another meeting, where the report [about the money] was supposed to be availed, Hon Mafabi allegedly asked Dr Besigye in what capacity he was asking for the report. Hon. Mafabi insisted that Dr Besigye would see it, after it had gone through the appropriate organs of the Party, hence, the meeting also became unsuccessful.”

It is against this background that Dr Besigye decided to raise the matter in the National Council after delivering his keynote address.

The Committee also asked Dr Besigye why he did not campaign for Eng Amuriat as FDC’s Presidential Candidate during the 2021 general elections, he responded that;

“In the year 2018, he met Senior Party Leaders and told them that he would not be a candidate in the 2021 General Elections and advised them to find someone else. However, he was surprised that there were no efforts taken to follow his advice and hurriedly settled for Eng. Amuriat at the last minute.”

He added that; “When Eng. Amuriat became the candidate, he set up a Campaign Bureau which was supposed to be headed by Amb. Birigwa only to be notified later that the Campaign Bureau had been disbanded and he [Amuriat] did not have plans to reinstate the Campaign Bureau.”

A day after Dr Besigye’s submission, the same committee summoned, FDC Secretary General, Mr Nandala Mafabi. The committee chairman, Dr Frank Nabwiso asked about the allegations that he had received ‘dirty money’.

Mr Mafabi replied that; “Towards the 2021 General Elections the Party was in a financial crisis as it needed close to 2.7 billion shillings, excluding the cost for printing posters and financing candidates. The National Executive Committee authorised him to borrow funds to run the Party activities during that period.”

He went ahead and produced an extract of the minutes of the meeting which authorised him to borrow the money to run the party activities. Mr Mafabi further noted that in the process of looking for money they approached Dr Besigye to help them raise the money. Instead, Dr Besigye asked them to prepare the budget which they did, but he never got back to them.

“After realizing that Dr Besigye was not willing to mobilize or help them get any funds, Hon. Mafabi embarked on intensive mobilization of the required resources. So, what he did was not to benefit him as an individual but the party,” the report read in part.

Specifically, on the issue of “dirty money” Mr Mafabi contended that he had mobilised money for agents and requested Dr Besigye to keep for him Uganda Shillings 300 million which the latter willingly accepted.

He backed the above submission by showing the Committee evidence of the Bank Statement indicating the money he withdrew Shs500 million from his account Stanbic Bank, Kyambogo account, according to the report.

Disbanding the campaign bureau

In defense on why he had disbanded the campaign bureau, Mr Mafabi responded that; “The money for the Bureau was inflated to a tune of Uganda Shillings 130 billion whereas the party was struggling to find finances to run basic activities.”

Adding that the disbandment of the bureau was directed by the presidential candidate [Amuriat] and all the activities that were earlier assigned to the bureau were run by the party administrative staff.

In his conclusion remarks to the committee, Mr Mafabi alleged in says the report that Dr Besigye wanted to micro-manage the party, yet during his tenure a lot of funds were mobilised from both covert and overt sources without being questioned about them.

Interfacing with the elders committee, the party President, Eng Patrick Amuriat confirmed that Ms Nabbosa Ssebugwawo, a former FDC Vice President [current state minister for information and communication] chaired the NEC meeting where a resolution was passed to borrow money and in that same meeting she led by example by donating Shs20 million.

“He also confirmed that in an attempt to look for money for the Party they reached out to Dr. Besigye to help them and asked them to prepare the budget but he never got back to them. Hon Amuriat further revealed that Hon. Mafabi took the initiative of mobilizing money and gave some of it to him in three instalments of Uganda Shillings 150 million, 100 million and 30 million,” the committee report read in part.

According to the same report, Mr Amuriat reiterated that no money came from State House although there has been a practice that some of the sources of funding be kept secret. Mr Amuriat also acknowledged to have disbanded the campaign bureau because the party was in a financial crisis.

Mr Wasswa Birigwa, the FDC national chairman declined to interface with the committee for reasons connected with FDC’s constitution concerning the responsibilities of the party chairpersons.

The committee resolved that it was a long standing practice in the FDC of not disclosing all the sources of its money and it cannot be abandoned given the little income which can be raised from the party members.

As a way forward, the Friday nation council meeting agreed to constitute a reconciliation committee to mediate peace talks between the two aggrieved factions in the party.

“It has been agreed that NEC will constitute a reconciliation committee that will be tasked to bring back cohesion among the party members, so that they work together for the good of the party,” Ms Salaamu Musumba the chairperson of the Friday national council meeting said on Friday.

However, the heated FDC national council meeting adopted the committee report without the key leading party members, including the party founding president, Dr Kizza Besigye, FDC spokesperson, Mr Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda and the Vice President for Buganda who is also the Lord Mayor of Kampala City, Mr Erias Lukwago.