I need your mercy, Makubuya pleads with Museveni
Former Attorney General, Prof. Khiddu Makubuya
What you need to know:
Opening a Pandora’s box. Ex-Attorney General says prosecuting him over the Basajja pay will open a can of worms over other govt transactions
The former Attorney General, Prof. Khiddu Makubuya, has asked President Museveni to forgive him for any mistakes made in approving businessman Hassan Basajjabalaba’s Shs142 billion claims, but warned prosecuting him would boomerang.
In an eight-page letter, written on January 6, Prof. Makubuya pleads for restraint after the Criminal Investigations Directorate began investigating him allegedly for insubordination, abuse of office and causing financial loss.
“The principal complainant against me was given as the Attorney General of Uganda, he wrote. “It will be Peter Nyombi testifying against common criminal Khiddu-Makubuya. But more disturbingly, it is the incumbent Attorney General testifying against his immediate predecessor in office. Such action is likely to be celebrated by sections of the public as a “big fish has been caught and, therefore, corruption is being effectively fought”, he stated.
Prof. Makubuya, however, told the President that when push comes to shove, he will, during cross-examination and in self-defence, be forced to reveal “some truths” about the AG’s office -something counter -productive and likely to undermine the office.
Cause for worry
He wrote: “Various truths on a number of things will definitely have to come out. This will be good news for open methods of work and the open society. . And where does it leave certain transactions processed and sealed during my tenure as AG?”
Prof. Makubuya, now the General Duties minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, listed the transformation of Nile Hotel into Serena Hotel; unspecified multi-million dollar loan agreements between Uganda government and international lenders and recommendations of the Committee on Prerogative of Mercy as some of the decisions likely to be “reopened and cross-checked”.
Asked yesterday to comment about the letter, Prof. Makubuya, said: “I don’t know where you got it (the letter) from; there is no way I can discuss these matters with you. Sorry!”
It is not clear if Prof. Makubuya’s letter informed Mr Museveni’s decision to write, twice within three days, to Mr Kassiano Wadri, the chairperson of PAC, investigating the pay.
In the letters of the same content on February 1 and 3, the President said that both Prof. Makubuya and Mr Basajjabalaba separately told him that the compensation was “fair”.
