Speaker of Parliament Anita Among. PHOTO/FILE
The Speaker of Parliament Anita Among, her husband Moses Magogo, former Deputy Chief of Defence Forces Lt Gen Peter Elwelu, Junior Finance minister for Planning Amos Lugoloobi, and two ex-Karamoja ministers; Dr Goretti Kitutu and Agness Nandutu, are barred from living or visiting the United States.
Also sanctioned yesterday by Washington are spouses: The Speaker’s husband Moses Magogo, who is a Member of Parliament and President of the Federation of Uganda Football Association (FUFA); Mr Michael George Kitutu, the husband of Dr Kitutu; and, Mr Lugoloobi’s wife Evelyne Nakimera.
Ms Among and Mr Magogo have carved for themselves an image of a celebrity couple with very public display of affection where, for instance, the former in November 2022 gifted the latter a new Range Rover on his birthday.
The latest sanctions mean that the listed individuals are no longer eligible for the C1 and C3 visas granted to non-US citizens and foreign dignitaries, respectively, to transit through any of the US airports en-route to their final destination particularly Canada or South America.
In addition, their assets or finances held in America, or any of the sixteen US oversea territories including Guam, US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, are immediately frozen while American businesses and individuals are proscribed from engaging in businesses or finances in which any of the octad has interest.
The punitive actions announced yesterday by the US State Department will also complicate life for the octad, particularly when dealing with the international payment system that uses the SWIFT code, VISA, Interswitch, America Express, among others.
The State Department punitive measures came exactly one month after the UK government announced similar measures against Ms Among, the Bukedea Woman Member of Parliament, and two former Karamoja ministers; Ms Kitutu and Ms Nandutu for their involvement in the iron sheets (mabaati) scandal.
At least 22 ministers, including Vice President Jessica Alupo, Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, Speaker Among, 31 MPs, several local government officials, and other private individuals, are believed to have irregularly received the iron sheets meant for the vulnerable people of Karamoja sub-region.
Ms Anita Among, like other political executives, acknowledged receiving some of the iron sheets meant for Karamoja, which she replaced. Several other officials returned the iron sheets to the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) for redistribution.
However, only three ministers; Mr Lugoloobi, and Ms Nandutu and Kitutu were charged before the Anti-Corruption Court.
Mr Lugoloobi, whom President Museveni retained in the March Cabinet reshuffle during which he kicked out the implicated women also survived UK sanction.
President Joe Biden’s administration, however, has this time round punished him along with his wife Evelyne Nakimera. Ms Kitutu, whom President Museveni fired from Cabinet during the reshuffle on March 22, was sanctioned together with husband Michael George Kitutu.
“The Department [of State] is also taking steps to impose visa restrictions on multiple other Ugandan officials for undermining the democratic process and repressing members of marginalised or vulnerable populations in Uganda. These individuals are responsible for, or complicit in, the repression of Ugandan members of political opposition groups, civil society organisers, and vulnerable communities in Uganda,” State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller said in yesterday’s statement.
Mr Miller said Washington stands with Ugandans advocating for democratic principles, a government that delivers for all its citizens, and accountability for actions committed by those who abuse their position through corruption and gross violations of human rights.
“Impunity allows corrupt officials to stay in power, slows the pace of development, facilitates crime, and causes unequal distribution of resources, which can affect underrepresented and underserved populations disproportionately,”he noted, adding, “Today’s actions reaffirm the US commitment to support transparency in Uganda’s democratic processes, counter corruption globally, and address the broader culture of impunity that prevents all Ugandans from enjoying their human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
Troubled waters
Speaker Among variously shrugged off the UK sanctions as “politically motivated” over her vocal stance against homosexuality, especially the Anti-Homosexuality law, and vowed not to back down.
In a rejoinder, the State Minister for Regional Cooperation John Mulimba said in a statement on May 2 that Ms Among “has not been charged by the Director of Public Prosecution in the aforementioned cases.”
“We, therefore, seek to find rationale for actions taken by the British government in his sanctions designation,” Mr Mulimba said
Yesterday, the US Department of State said it sanctioned Ms Among, Uganda’s third-highest ranked public official, “due to involvement in significant corruption tied to her leadership of Uganda’s Parliament.”
Parliament was in early March thrust into the spotlight through the #Ugandparliamentexhibition spearheaded by the activism group Agora Discourse. The exhibition lifted the lid on several issues from illegal staff recruitment to dubious payouts, some of which appeared to border on criminal conduct.
Officials of the Legislature denied any wrong-doing and claimed the exposé was motivated by malice of detractors.
The unsigned documents which Agora said at the time said were excerpts from the Integrated Financial Management and Information System (IFMIS), which tracks public sector financial management and accounting, detailed the top leadership of the House picking large amounts of tax payers’ cash through aides and earning exaggerated per diems for foreign travels, some of which did not appear to have taken place.
Parliament discounted the revelations of mismanagement as “exaggerations” propelled by political schemers.
During a plenary in March, Speaker Among blocked debate about the revelations, saying she will not run the August House based on rumours on social fueled by people she termed as “bum-shafters”, a pejorative reference to homosexuals.
President Museveni in two back-to-back letters, the latest being on May 23, noted he was briefed that the UK sanctioned related to a house Ms Among allegedly owned in Stratford, East London. He directed the Foreign Affairs ministry, the Attorney General and the Government Ombudsman to investigate veracity of the claims.
“I have received a letter from Dr. Patricia Achan Okiria, Deputy Inspector General of Government, of 9th May, 2024 informing me that the Rt Hon Anita Annet Among never revealed that she had a house in the United Kingdom. Rt Hon Anita Among has told me that she does not own a house or houses in the UK,” the President wrote.
The letter adds: “Therefore, working with the Attorney-General, write an appropriate letter to the relevant authorities in the UK to demand the source of their information. They cannot falsely accuse any of our people and we just let it pass.”
President Museveni’s May 11th letter was in response to his earlier letter dated May 2 letter instructing the Inspector General of Government Beti Kamya and the Integrity minister to inform him if Speaker Among “declared in her forms of the Leadership Code [that she owned] a house or houses in the UK.”
On May 4, Ms Among told Parliament that she was not bothered by the sanctions and that she did not own anything in the UK.
When the waters appeared to calm, with the country adjusting to leadership of its Parliament sanctioned by a former colonial master, President Museveni returned to spotlight Ms Among with more pointed inquiry.
“I have got information that is contrary to what you told me, that you, indeed, own a house in London in the form of a Flat 4, Silk, 7 Watersden Road E20 3AL United Kingdom. Do you own this house or are you renting it?” he wrote on May 23.
The Speaker reported replied the letter a couple of days later. We were unable to establish what she told the head of state, with Parliament Spokesman Chris Obore telling this Daily Monitor on Wednesday, that conversations between the President and the Speaker “are private”.
In a post on social media on Wednesday, hours after a copy of President Museveni’s letter to her leaked, the Speaker reiterated her innocence, saying the British government had forged claims of her ownership of property in London to mask its intention to punish her for chaperoning the 11th Parliament in the enactment a year ago of the anti-gay law.
