Three MPs face graft charges that rock the Ugandan parliament

Corruption has been identified by Ugandan President Museveni as a significant barrier to the nation’s complete socioeconomic change.

Speaking just after Uganda’s $19.1 billion budget for 2024–2025 was revealed by Finance Minister Matia Kasaija on Thursday, the President reaffirmed his commitment to combat corruption.

“We’re going to eradicate corruption…I’m not sure how the corrupt people manage to ignore the fact that we possess a great deal of power and capacity, which we will employ if needed.Our heroes are insulted by these dishonest people,” he remarked.

You will see that since they (the corrupt) disregarded our instructions, they have now drawn all of our attention. We are going to smash this betrayal. We will see this through to the end because it truly is a betrayal,” he continued.

His caustic comments were made the day after three members of Parliament, all affiliated with his ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party, were remanded to Luzira Prison by the Anti-Corruption Court in Kampala on allegations of corruption.

They are Bunyole East MP Yusuf Mutembuli, his Busiki South counterpart Paul Akamba, and Lwengo District Woman representative Cissy Namujju.

The trio allegedly agreed to persuade Parliament’s Budget Committee to raise the Uganda Human Rights Commission’s statutory rights body’s annual funding in exchange for receiving 20 percent of the increase.

“Mutembuli, Akamba and Dionizia … solicited an undue advantage … by asserting that they were able to exert improper influence over the decision-making of the budget committee of parliament of Uganda to increase the UHRC budget,” the charge sheet, which Reuters obtained, stated.

The defendants were placed in jail awaiting a bail hearing after they refuted the combined charge.

Mr. Museveni claimed that when corrupt bureaucrats disregarded his earlier “soft methods,” he was forced to employ “harsh” measures to confront them.

In his State-of-the-Nation Address last week, Mr. Museveni disclosed that he had obtained information indicating certain parliamentarians were working along with government department executives to inflate their budgets in return for a commission.

On Monday, detectives selected the parliamentarians following President Museveni’s directive for the police and prosecutors to pursue officials who had committed theft.

The permanent secretary of the finance ministry and secretary to the treasury, Ramathan Ggoobi, said on Wednesday that members of parliament had been manipulating the budget for years by rearranging government priorities to suit their constituents’ demands.

“There are lots of affordable games in Uganda…According to him, some MPs told the accounting officials, “If you want more money, come talk to us. We’ll put in more money, but you’ll have to return some.”

Speaker of the House Anita Among had earlier in her speech called on accounting officers of all government agencies to publicly disclose any and all cases of influence peddling by lawmakers or parliamentary staff.

She stated, “In the past, we have urged accounting officers to report any instances of influence peddling to the leadership of the legislature. Nevertheless, we haven’t received any such information.” We implore accounting officers to stay in constant communication and cooperation with legislative leadership in the endeavor to achieve increased accountability and transparency.”

She also urged lawmakers to refrain from corrupt practices, such as asking for “inducements from anybody.”

Thomas Tayebwa, the deputy speaker of parliament, stated that they were “working very closely with the President and we hope that we can continue cleaning up” the House just hours before the budget reading.

The government of Museveni has been under fire from the opposition for a long time for not prosecuting high-ranking officials for graft, claiming that political allegiance takes precedence above accountability for public resources.

Joel Ssenyonyi, the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, demanded that the Parliamentary Commission be included in wider corruption probes, citing the Commission’s lack of transparency as a reason.

This occurs when a group of lawmakers led by Theodro Ssekikubo are attempting to get 170 signatures to condemn four commissioners who are said to have given themselves $449,060.

Four members of parliament include Mathias Mpuuga, a former leader of the opposition in parliament and member for Nyendo-Mukungwe; Solomon Silwany, a member for Bukooli County Central; Esther Afoyochan, a member for Zombo District Woman; and Prossy Akampurira, a member for Rubanda District Woman.

According to several MPs, the ongoing police investigations have caused a stir in the House, with some lawmakers choosing to take short excursions overseas and others choosing to abstain from Parliament.

A number of audits from the Auditor General state that corruption costs Uganda over 40% of the money allocated to its budget.

Detectives will also target district accounting officers, public servants, and accounting officers of government ministries and agencies, according to sources within the Uganda Police Criminal Investigations Department.