FDC tips on handling Mpuuga-NUP fallout
Mr John Kikonyogo, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) spokesperson (left), and Ms Agnes Kisakye, the chairperson of the party’s women’s league, during a press conference at their headquaters in Najjanankumbi, Kampala, on March 4, 2024. PHOTO/SYLIVIA KATUSHABE
What you need to know:
- The alleged Shs500m award was first exposed in an ongoing #ParliamentExhibition 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.
The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has criticised the National Unity Platform (NUP) party for not learning from FDC’s recent fallout over claims of ‘dirty’ money.
Mr John Kikonyogo, the FDC spokesperson, said spilling internal party matters in the open makes the public not only lose trust in the party but also tears apart the party as has happened with FDC recently.
on February 29, NUP, the leading Opposition party, tasked its immediate former Leader of the Opposition in Parliament and now parliamentary commissioner, Mr Matthias Mpuuga, to resign over claims that he benefited from a questionable Shs500m “services award”.
Mr Mpuuga has since rejected the calls to resign.
The alleged Shs500m award was first exposed in an ongoing #ParliamentExhibition 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.
Mr Kikonyogo, who spoke at the weekly FDC media briefing at the party headquarters in Kampala, yesterday, said: “Ours started with claims of Shs300 million; now they are talking about Shs500 million, then claims that a lot of billions came to Najjanankumbi [FDC]. Those who were making the claims are now quiet but have muddied the name of the FDC party.”
The FDC elders committee that looked into allegations against its top party officials receiving ‘dirty’ money from the National Resistance Movement (NRM) regime has cleared FDC secretary general Nandala Mafabi and Party president Patrick Amuriat Oboi of any wrongdoing.
The committee said the complainants had failed to present sufficient evidence to support the allegations.
Former Forum for Democratic Change President Kizza Besigye addresses the media at his offices at Katonga road in 2023. PHOTO/ABUBAKER LUBWA
Mr Kikonyogo said what happened to FDC should have been an eye-opener to other Opposition political parties who should have learnt to sensitively handle their internal matters.
“If you lose the trust of the people of Uganda, winning it back is not easy. In Uganda, because of poverty, if someone hears that you have eaten [pocketed] Shs500m at his expense, they will hate you ten times. Some may even want to stone you,” he warned.
“Even if it was true that they took that money, zero in on that person, quietly remove them from the frontline, and take him away or else people will look at all of you [in the Opposition] as money eaters,” Mr Kikonyogo said.
Mr Kikonyogo said the money scandal still haunts FDC members who were not even party to the questionable saga and have been bogged down in repeatedly explaining that they never saw the money.
