Bobi pushes Mpuuga’s Shs500m case to NEC
Mr Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, the National Unity Platform leader addresses the media at his home in Magere, Wakiso District on January 23, 2024. PHOTO/MICHAEL KAKUMIRIZI.
What you need to know:
- When Mr Kyagulanyi got wind of the payout, he instructed all his MPs to return the money to the person who had given it to them. But of the 57 MPs from NUP, only Mr Twaha Kagabo of Bukoto South attempted to return the money.
The National Unity Platform (NUP) president is set to meet the party’s top organ to decide the fate of Mathias Mpuuga should he refuse to step down as a parliamentary commissioner.
NUP leader Robert Kyagulanyi, better known by his stage name of Bobi Wine, on March 4 said: “I’m going to meet NEC [the National Executive Committee] and present the issue to them. Among NEC, we have more senior leaders and this is where the matters will be presented and we wait for their decision.”
NUP, the leading Opposition party, last Thursday tasked its immediate former Leader of the Opposition in Parliament and now parliamentary commissioner, Mr Mpuuga, to resign over claims that he benefited from a questionable Shs500m “services award”.
But Mr Mpuuga has since described the claims as baseless and has rejected the calls to resign.
In an interview on CBS radio in Kampala at the weekend, Mr Mpuuga defended his actions, saying he has not yet received the Shs500m as is being claimed in the media.
“We love him [Kyagulanyi] and we want to support him to greater heights, but we also have to grow in the process. It’s not right to push us down; we grow,” he said.
The alleged Shs500m award was first exposed in an ongoing Parliament Exhibition on the micro-blogging site X, formerly Twitter, by citizens, among them, journalist-cum-lawyer Agather Atuhaire, and Dr Jimmy Ssentongo, alias Spire, a Makerere University don and satirist.
“We don’t want to do things without following the due process. I was advising him [Mpuuga] to step down [as commissioner]. The party will take the course that we are supposed to take,” Mr Kyagulanyi said in the televised interview on NTV.
Nonetheless, Mr Kyagulanyi said the party has no power to remove its MPs from Parliament when they defy a directive from the party. He said they could only hold them accountable to the population.
Corruption
“The only difference is that Mpuuga is my Deputy President and is a Commissioner of Parliament, so he is a senior leader. But for MPs that were involved in corruption and bribery and have admitted it, we took them to the population,” he said.
Mr Kyagulanyi said in their senior leaders’ meeting with Mr Mpuuga were current Leader of Opposition in Parliament Joel Ssenyonyi, Public Accounts Committee – Central Government chair Muwanga Kivumbi, and Shadow Internal Affairs minister Betty Nambooze.
He said Mpuuga was advised to step down as Commissioner of Parliament.
“But it’s unfortunate that the public statement Mr Mpuuga released is completely different from the facts of the meeting,” Mr Kyagulanyi said.
Mr Kyagulanyi conceded that this time round, other than exposing MPs who accept money or inducements, there is nothing much he could do.
Background
In the 2022/2023 Financial Year, each MP was reportedly given Shs40m for helping to pass a supplementary budget for that year.
When Mr Kyagulanyi got wind of the payout, he instructed all his MPs to return the money to the person who had given it to them. But of the 57 MPs from NUP, only Mr Twaha Kagabo of Bukoto South attempted to return the money.
But he was forced to apologise to both Parliament and the Speaker after the Inspectorate of Government officials arrested him.
