Parliament cash saga ties tongues of Opposition MPs

The loud silence of many Opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) over the unfolding multibillion spending scandal in Parliament is feeding speculation and suspicions they may have been compromised.

But their apparent reluctance to engage even as an online campaign -- using the hashtag #UgandaParliamentExhibition -- led by social justice activists, including journalist-cum-lawyer Agather Atuhaire and Makerere University don, Dr Jimmy Spire Ssentongo, has since February 26 exposed the dark underbelly of the House.

Among the allegations are claims that House Speaker Anita Among, a member of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party, was allocated billions in questionable travel allowances.

She has also been implicated in potentially illegal recruitment of staff, and heavily criticised when it was revealed that staff members’ private bank accounts were used as a conduit to draw billions of shillings allegedly for community outreaches, contrary to regulations.

The additional silence over a now-infamous service award worth Shs1.7 billion paid to backbench parliamentary commissioners, of which former Leader of Opposition (LoP), Mr Mathias Mpuuga, pocketed half a billion shillings, has also triggered talk of mischief in Opposition ranks.

For the first two weeks of the campaign, not a word was heard from that side of Parliament, which was unusual given their declared anti-corruption posture. Only the current LoP, Mr Joel Ssenyonyi, posted a comment on his official X handle on February 27, commending the expose.

Mr Ssenyonyi went one step further this Monday, demanding that Ms Among recalls the House so the allegations could be discussed by MPs this week.

He was on Tuesday backed by two ruling party MPs; Mr Theodore Ssekikubo (Lwemiyaga) and his Buyaga West counterpart, Mr Barnabas Tinkasimire, who said Parliament must be recalled and its accounts should be audited by the Auditor General to get the bottom of this scandal.

Public wrath

This silence and failure to raise these issues on the floor as deputy speaker, Mr Thomas Tayebwa, abruptly adjourned the House indefinitely on March 6 drew public anger, prompting some to use the same hashtag to target usually more vocal MPs such as Kira Municipality’s Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda.

The former journalist responded in a March 13 post, clarifying that while he took some of the trips mentioned in documents posted on X, there were also forgeries aimed at making him look bad.

Hours later that same day, Dr Ssentongo responded, indicating that they zeroed-in on him simply because the Kira Municipality member is one of the most respected Opposition politicians considered to be the people’s voice. His silence when such grave issues are being exposed is seen as a betrayal, the don said.

Probing likely collusion

A majority of the opinion leaders and political pundits we talked to for this report pointed at possible collusion as the likely reason for the Opposition’s unusual behaviour.

A leader of the Najjanankumbi faction of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Mr Patrick Amuriat Oboi, whose party has 32 MPs, was scathing in his assessment.

“MP are supposed to be the mouthpiece of the public and speak for them as they play their representative [and oversight] role. It is either that they are intimidated or part of the entire scheme, and of course the dictator will want to see a weak opposition,” he said.

Mr Oboi said FDC-Najjanankumbi is quietly investigating their members and if they are caught on the wrong side, appropriate action will be taken against them.

Relatedly, the Secretary General of the National Unity Platform (NUP), Mr David Rubongoya, said they too are probing reports that some of their members are secretly dealing with the NRM and also accepting bribes.

Mr Rubongoya said whoever will be found culpable can expect the same punishment meted out to Mr Mpuuga. NUP has asked the former LOP to apologise to the country and resign his position as a House commissioner for accepting the controversial service award – a directive the Nyendo-Mukungwe MP has resisted.

Veteran politician Alice Alaso, who occupied the Serere District Woman seat in the 8th, 9th and 10th Parliaments on FDC tickets, said what is happening within Opposition ranks in Parliament is “unfortunate”.

Now the national coordinator of the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT), a party founded in 2018 by members who broke away from FDC after the shabby ouster of their present leader, Maj Gen (rtd) Mugisha Muntu, as FDC president, Ms Alaso blamed NRM and poor choices made by voters.

“The regime has made sure that they weaken most of the institutions, including Parliament and so if you send weak leaders there, this will be the result. The House needs leaders with integrity because I for one do not remember how many times I was offered money but declined to take it,” she said.

Two days after being declared winner of the contentious and violent 2016 General Election, President Museveni vowed there would be no Opposition left in Uganda by the 2021 General Election.

The current unravelling of, and in-fighting tearing Opposition parties apart have been blamed on the President’s alleged machinations. Another former LoP and Gulu Woman MP, Ms Betty Aol Ochan said this situation must be counted among the President’s ‘achievements’ because he is succeeding in suffocating the Opposition.

“We see the Opposition dying slowly in confusion as you can witness in parties. It is unfortunate that the alternative government in Parliament has also gone down,” she said.

A political science and public administration don at Makerere University, Prof Sabiiti Makara, agreed Parliament has diminished in stature over the years due to the heavy commercialisation of Uganda’s politics which has affected the quality of governance.

“The strongest Parliament this country has ever had was the 6th Parliament. By then we didn’t have multi-party democracy but legislators could debate with substance. There was nothing like censoring MPs, the quality of debate was real unlike now,” he said.

“Commercialisation of politics is costing the quality of good governance in the country and it will get worse unless laws are enacted to eliminate it. Now someone will sell their property and sponsor themselves to Parliament and once they reach there, they will definitely work towards getting their monies back,” he added.

In total, there are 87 Opposition MPs in the 557-member 11th Parliament, with NUP accounting for 57, followed by FDC with 31. The Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) has 10, the Democratic Party nine, while the NRM has 337 members.

There are 73 independent MPs, one each from the Justice Forum and People’s Progressive Party and 10 soldiers representing the Army. Others include unelected ministers who sit in the House without voting rights as ex-officio members.

Also from Makerere, senior lecturer in the humanities and social sciences, Prof Ndebesa Mwambutsya, said political corruption is responsible for the decline.

“The Opposition has not been effective in holding the government accountable because the majority are position seekers not change seekers. They are beneficiaries of hefty pay cheques, non-taxed allowances; they are comfortable. I will not say this Opposition because I am sure that the rot has been going on, only that we have not been seeing it until this online exhibition unearthed it,” he said.

The state of the Opposition

For now, Mr Museveni’s bid to either conscript the Opposition or eradicate it altogether saw DP president, Mr Norbert Mao, sign an MoU with NRM in 2021. Mr Mao now sits in Cabinet as minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister. Two of his colleagues in the equally factionalised DP were backed by the government in securing election to the East African Legislative Assembly.

On the other hand, the UPC faction led by Lira Municipality MP Jimmy Akena continues to confuse as to its true identity. Mr Akena’s wife, Ms Betty Amongi (Oyam South MP) was appointed Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development by President Museveni who, frequently sings Mr Akena’s praises, describing him as a good Opposition leader the NRM can do business with.

However, the ultimate prize would appear to be the FDC split in November last year over claims party Secretary General, Mr Nandala Mafabi and Mr Amuriat allegedly accepted hundreds of millions in “dirty money” from State House ahead of the 2021 General Election – as part of a reported plot to hand over the party to Mr Museveni.

What they say

“We would have expected more from our Opposition leaders in Parliament but they seem to be either fearing or not willing to engage in a tough way with the Speaker,” Gerald Karuhanga, former Ntungamo Municipality MP

‘‘We used to have performance reports produced by a certain CSO on the way the Opposition are responding to issues affecting the country. They could have done better but it is unfortunate that Ugandans do not have a fallback position because now the Opposition and those in government are not any different,” Angelline Osege, former Woman MP Soroti.

“The Opposition has been disappointing because they are supposed to check corruption, abuse of office and failure of government but now they find themselves caught in the same misuse they were supposed to stop because documents show that they were involved,” Charity Ahimbisibwe, executive director, Electoral Law and Governance Institute.

We have never had any case of one of our members misbehaving in Parliament; secretly picking bribes. We caution them and have on several occasions warned them of the wrath of the masses should they try to divert from the needs of the people,” Fred Ebil, Secretary General UPC.