Corruption claims: Opposition MPs told to plead innocence in writing
Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Wafula Oguttu. He urged the Auditor General to investigate MPs for allegedly taking cash to clear debts. PHOTO BY GEOFREY SSERUYANGE
What you need to know:
Mr Oguttu last week revealed that 18 Opposition MPs may have received cash from the NRM chief whip ostensibly to pay off their debts under a scheme designated as “Article 110” - a reference to the constitutional provision where the President declares a state of emergency.
PARLIAMENT- Opposition MPs who insist they did not pocket money from National Resistance Movement have been asked to sign a document pleading innocence.
A shadow Cabinet meeting yesterday resolved that all Opposition MPs who have not received the cash the Leader of the Opposition Parliament, Mr Wafula Oguttu, estimated to have been between Shs110m and Shs150m each, should take a vow that they will not pick the money even when it is provided in future.
Mr Oguttu last week revealed that 18 Opposition MPs may have received cash from the NRM chief whip ostensibly to pay off their debts under a scheme designated as “Article 110” - a reference to the constitutional provision where the President declares a state of emergency.
His claims, however, triggered a backlash with MPs across the political divide denigrating him as a “rumormonger” and Ms Justine Lumumba, the Government Chief Whip, whose office is at the centre of the bribery claims, vowed to arraign the Opposition chief before the House committee on Rules and Discipline if he does not back up his assertions with evidence.
Mr Oguttu said yesterday: “The members resolved that they are going to sign that they have not taken that money and they will not take it. I am very happy about that. After that, the struggle will be at a different level. I am serious about this. There is no pressure which was put on me because I was right.”
By yesterday evening, an MP who signed but declined to be named because he is not authorised to speak on behalf of the Shadow Cabinet, revealed more than seven MPs had signed.
The allegations of doling out the cash to MPs will be discussed at a Parliamentary Commission meeting today, Bukedea Woman MP Rose Akol, a member of the Commission told the House Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs yesterday amid demands that the Mr Oguttu explains the sources of the cash in question.
FDC president Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu was at Parliament for a meeting with the Opposition chief though it was not clear whether the allegations would feature in their discussions.
