MPs get Covid cash despite court order

Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine Aaddressing jouranlists at his home recently. PHOTO MICAHEL KAKUMIRIZI

What you need to know:

  • Some MPs received the money on their accounts on Tuesday afternoon, hours after the High Court had ordered that the payment of the Shs10b to Parliament be stayed.

A situation that might set Parliament and the Judiciary on a collision course emerged Wednesday after MPs received the controversial Shs20m each for Covid-19 activities despite a High Court order stopping the payment.
Confronted with this difficult scenario, the Speaker of Parliament summoned the Attorney General to guide the House on how to handle the matter.
By Wednesday, MPs were smiling all the way to the bank after the Parliamentary Commission deposited the cash on their respective accounts.

The money is part of the Shs10b Parliament controversially allocated itself and included, belatedly, during the debate and approval of the Shs304b supplementary budget for Ministry of Health last week to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Some MPs received the money on their accounts on Tuesday afternoon, hours after the High Court had ordered that the payment be stayed.
The court halted the payment until April 29, when the case is heard and disposed of. The court further stated that MPs who could have already received the money, should not touch it until the application is disposed of.

The order arose from a petition by Erute South MP Jonathan Odur and his Ntungamo counterpart Gerald Karuhanga seeking the High Court to quash the decision by Parliament to allocate itself the Shs10b.
They say the money was illegally appropriated because it had not been included in the supplementary budget.
However, at the opening of the Parliament plenary sitting yesterday, Speaker Kadaga confirmed the money had been paid into the accounts of MPs and described the court order as “confusing.”

“By the time we received this order, I am informed the money, the subject matter of this suit, had been received by the Parliamentary Commission and had already been disbursed in accordance with the supplementary appropriation which was passed by this House,” Ms Kadaga told the House.
She added: “In the circumstances, I instruct the Attorney General, who is a party to this matter, to come to this House and offer guidance as to how this order can be implemented, it is confusing.”

With some MPs already hinting on returning the money because they do not need facilitation from Covid-19 funding to support their constituents fight the pandemic, Ms Jane Kibirige, the Clerk to Parliament, advised on how to return the cash.
In a letter addressed to all MPs and seen by Daily Monitor, Ms Kibirige advised that unlike the previous practice of parading such money before the press, those returning it should wire it to the Parliamentary Commission account in Bank of Uganda.
Last week, Mityana Municipality MP Francis Zaake wrote to the Speaker informing her he would not receive the money. It is not readily established by yesterday whether his account had been credited with the money.

On Thursday, Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine also posted on his social media pages saying he would not partake of the money.

“While millions of Ugandans starved and countless lost jobs, the Parliament of Uganda allocated itself Shs10bn ($2.7m) & gave each Member 20m! Not even a court order or public outcry could stop them. Wrong and immoral! I've returned this money and will not partake in a fraud so vile,” he said.

One of the petitioners, Mr Odur, told Daily Monitor yesterday that his bank had notified him of the transfer of Shs20m by Parliament to his account. But he vowed not to withdraw it in compliance with the court order and the pending petition on the subject.
There were also reports that even ministers who don’t represent any constituencies in Parliament had been considered for the Shs20m. However Daily Monitor could not independently verify this claim.

MPs plan for the money
The court order notwithstanding, some MPs have already planned on how to spend the money.
Budadiri West MP Nandala Mafabi, has indicated how he will spend the money.
Last week, Mr Mafabi said on his social media account that Parliament would be “doomed” to allocate itself Shs10b. Yesterday, he used the same platform to say he had topped his Shs20m share to buy an ambulance for Buwalasi Health Centre in his Sironko District.

Ndorwa East MP Wilfred Niwagaba said though he had not yet confirmed receipt of the money on his account, his constituency taskforce and advisers had already given him a go ahead to pick it.
Iki-Iki County MP Robert Kasilo said he would spend much of the Shs20m on serving and fuelling his Land Cruiser ambulance for the constituency “because it will work a lot this time”.