Court rejects MPs’ case as Museveni meets caucus

Kampala High Court judge Michael Elubu yesterday declined to reverse his earlier orders in which he had directed all MPs to return the controversial Shs20m Covid-19 cash to government coffers for public use.

At the same time, President Museveni was meeting the NRM caucus MPs over the same money.

The rejection to alter his last week’s ruling followed an application for review by the Parliamentary Commission.

They had wanted the judge to revisit his April 29 orders to reflect the guidelines issued out by Speaker Rebecca Kadaga.

The Speaker’s guidelines were to the effect that each MP was to be in control of the said Shs20m and spend it on Covid-19-related activities in their respective constituencies or districts and after, furnish the Clerk to Parliament with accountability.

Likewise, Ms Sitinah Cherotich, the lawyer for the Parliamentary Commission, told court that they were opposed to the terms in the order extracted last week.

She argued that at the time the court made its orders, the status quo was that the said money had been sent as per the Speaker’s guidelines on April 23.

But rejecting the request by the Parliamentary Commission, Justice Elubu explained that his hands were then tied.

The judge went on to explain that court could not backtrack on its orders and that doing so would be totally outside its mandate.

He explained that the said order is a formal expression of court and should reflect that the matters in controversy have since been resolved.

The other issue that the Parliamentary Commission lawyers wanted court to rectify was to have the orders of court reflect that the petitioner, Ntungamo MP Gerald Karuhanga had also withdrawn his application for interim stay from court.

Last week, Justice Elubu ordered all the MPs to return the controversial Shs20m Covid-19 money to any of the three accounts of Parliamentary Commission account, the National Covid-19 Taskforce or the district Covid-19 taskforces.

“Members of Parliament representing special interest groups shall pay the funds to the national taskforce.” Justice Elubu ordered last week.

The judge also said he will on June 1, give directions on how the main case would proceed. As of now, the judge’s orders can only be altered on appeal before the Court of Appeal.

Speaking shortly after the judge rejected the Parliamentary Commission’s request to reverse his earlier orders, MP Karuhanga asked his colleagues in the House to obey the orders of court and return the Shs20m.
“Let’s stop playing games which are instead tarnishing the image of Parliament,” Mr Karuhanga said.

“I also appeal to Parliament to accept that there was a fundamental error made and they should correct it. We want all the Shs10b returned, including the ministers who are ex-officios who even don’t have constituents to spend that money on,” Mr Karuhanga added.

President Museveni has since castigated the legislators for allocating themselves this money at such a critical time of fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.

Museveni meets NRM MPs

As the judge was rejecting a request to reverse his orders of last week, NRM MPs, who had vowed not to return the said Shs20m, agreed to channel the same money to their constituents upon meeting the party chairperson, Mr Museveni.

The Burahya County MP, also the NRM caucus spokesperson, Ms Margaret Muhanga, said in a meeting with the President at State House Entebbe, they agreed to form constituency taskforces that will oversee the donations.

She further said they had told the President of how he was misinformed by his social media handlers that this money had caused public outcry.

Ms Muhanga said a number of legislators were overwhelmed by people in their constituencies who needed help following the lockdown and that the said Shs20m had come in handy to do that.

Compiled by Anthony Wesaka, Ephraim Kasozi, Nobert Atukunda & Juliet Kigongo

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