Bobi: 10 reasons why Mpuuga must resign
Former Leader of Opposition Mathias Mpuuga, his successor Joel Ssenyonyi and opposition NUP party leader Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine. PHOTO/COMBO
What you need to know:
- Mpuuga says the Parliamentary Commission is empowered to act in the manner that NUP’s top brass is currently frowning upon.
The leader of the National Unity Platform (NUP) party has issued a statement insisting that the only option left for the former Leader of the Opposition in Parliament (LoP) is to resign.
“The moral thing for him to do would be to apologise to the nation and step down from the Parliamentary Commission. That remains his choice,” Mr Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine said of Mr Mathias Mpuuga Nsamba in a statement released yesterday.
While appearing on CBS radio yesterday, Mr Mpuuga defended his actions, saying he has never been caught in a web of corruption as NUP seems to purport. He also described the decision to cut him loose as unilateral, saying the party’s top organs didn’t consider the material facts at hand.
Mr Mpuuga described the statement he put out on Friday as “measured and sober”, adding that he took his time before offering a response.
Accusations
The former LoP is accused of having participated in a Parliamentary Commission meeting of May 6, 2022 chaired by the Speaker of Parliament, Ms Anita Among, at which the commissioners awarded themselves Shs1.7 billion as a “one off long service award.” The immediate past LoP was allocated Shs500 million, while the three others were each awarded Shs400 million.
NUP argues that Mr Mpuuga should have consulted it before accepting to be party to the allocations.
“We believed that as a party that nominated Hon Mpuuga to the position of Leader of the Opposition, we should have been consulted on a matter of this magnitude,” the statement read.
Mr Kyagulanyi says whereas he used to speak regularly to Mr Mpuuga, it was not until the minutes of the said Commission meeting were leaked that he got to talk about the matter.
“When asked why he didn’t discuss this with the Party (or at least the President), he said it was a matter of personal finance! Really?” he wrote.
In the statement, Mr Kyagulanyi argues that he is disappointed that Mr Mpuuga made a turnaround saying that he is not leaving his job at Parliament yet he owned up to wrongdoing during an urgent meeting of senior NUP leaders.
Mr Kyagulanyi does not say when or where the said urgent meeting was held, but says that it was attended by officials including all the deputy presidents, the secretary general and deputy secretary general, the current Leader of the Opposition, the national treasurer, Mr Muwanga Kivumbi and Ms Betty Nambooze.
“In the presence of these leaders, Hon Mpuuga admitted that the leaked minutes were genuine. He admitted that it was wrong and immoral and apologised for the same. He regretted his actions and categorically stated that in hindsight, he should never have involved himself in such,” the statement discloses.
The statement claims that Mr Mpuuga accepted, at the urging of the NUP leaders, to step down.
“He was strongly advised to step down from the Commission in public interest because that is what leaders do. He requested for some time to consult with and prepare his family and other stakeholders, which we agreed to, because it was only fair,” the statement further says.
It however reveals that Mr Mpuuga went back on his word and refused to resign even when his principal—Bobi Wine—reminded him of the commitment made in the leaders’ meeting and the need to save his and the party’s image. Mr Kyagulanyi says that it was against that background that NUP issued the public statement on Friday.
In yesterday’s statement titled 10 reasons why the Shs500 million to Hon Mpuuga was an act of corruption and abuse of office, Mr Kyagulanyi said even if Mr Mpuuga, and other commissioners had done something exceptional to deserve the award, it defeats logic that they sat and appropriated themselves the said awards.
The law
Mr Mpuuga, Mr Kyagulanyi further argues, should not have participated in a discussion that was always going to result in self-enrichment. That he says, is prohibited under the Leadership Code Act of 2002.
Section 9(1) of the Leadership Code Act (2002) provides that, “A leader shall not participate in the deliberations of a public body or board or council or commission or committee, of which he or she is a member at any meeting at which any matter in which he or she has a personal interest is to be discussed.”
The law provides that the leader ceases to be a member of the public body or commission where the law has been breached. The leader also repays the money involved.
“Corruption, which is using money for what it was not intended, is something I have never done and will never do,” Mr Mpuuga told CBS radio yesterday, adding that the Parliamentary Commission is empowered to act in the manner that NUP’s top brass is currently frowning upon.
