I don’t want to speak in tongues- Mpuuga on caucus meeting with Bobi

Nearly half of the National Unity Platform (NUP) party’s membership in Parliament were absent at a caucus meeting convened to discuss the fate of House Commissioner Mathias Mpuuga.

Mr Mpuuga stands accused of indulging in corruption against party principles when he received a now-controversial multi-million ‘service award’ from Parliament in June 2022 yet he was barely into office as Leader of the Opposition.

He has resisted a party directive to return the money and resign as parliamentary commissioner –a position to which he was appointed last December. It is that decision which has reportedly stoked already simmering tensions inside the party. Below is what some of the MPs who missed meeting said;

Medard Sseggona, MP Busiiro East
 I was engaged, I had prior engagements and I notified the powers that be. 

Mr Michael Kakembe, MP Entebbe Municipality
It is my choice on whether to attend or not to attend a meeting, if I feel it's not important why should I attend? If I am not feeling well, or if I have lost a brother or my car has a mechanical problem and I am unable to reach!
I don’t see why people should doubt that to the extent that they could even deny my message to them that I may not attend.

I heard the spokesperson say that I did not attend and that I didn't even send an apology, I don’t know what was so big about that meeting that wanted everyone to attend that meeting that if you didn’t attend it is a crime.
We received the message on the same day of the meeting. Someone sends you a message in the morning that you have a meeting at 2pm, no agenda no what, you just go to attend the meeting blindly, what is that?
But for us we sent in our apology. I was on my way to attend the meeting and my car developed a mechanical problem, I even sent a message to my president informing him that I would reach late.
It is unfortunate that by the end of the meeting they had not finished working on my car.

Mr Jimmy Lwanga, NUP MP Njeru Muncipalicity  
I didn’t attend the meeting because I was not invited. Ever since I met Gen Muhoozi they scrapped me off their WhatsApp group without a genuine reason. I am no longer a member in their WhatsApp groups, and they don’t alert me on anything.  
And also their invitation should come with the agenda and be formal, not just mere calling that you come to Kavule. And for security issues we would not go for a meeting organized in Kavule, because we would question how safe we are.
You know how our party is run, whenever they see you with a person who is not in their party, they start labelling you an enemy because their ideology is only working with NUP people.
Gen Muhoozi is my friend and I believe in his ideology of patriotism but I am still a NUP member and they get IPOD money courtesy of me.

 Mr Abdallah Kiwanuka, NUP MP Mukono North
I made my apology for not attending and equally through the same platform which invited me. I posted there the evidence that I was attending court. I am a lawyer by profession, and I had a court case which was delayed to begin. By the time the court proceedings ended, it was too late. 
You know the traffic jam from Twed Towers along Kafu Road, Nakasero,Kampala to Kavule. So that's the reason I didn’t attend.  

 Former LOP Mathias Mpuuga  Nyendo Mukungwe MP
I will get time next week and call for a press conference and I will explain why I didn’t attend the NUP meeting. I don't want to speak in tongues.

 Mr Muwanga Kivumbi did not take well to our question into his absence: “we are too serious a party to engage in trivialities. We get fed up of you. We are dealing with serious matters and you start asking who was present or absent. Were you there when we started NUP?

 If I didn’t attend so what, then you do what? Must I attend every meeting, am I a page boy?  Stop trivializing NUP. NUP is a serious party. It can’t go into a trivial matter, who attends a meeting.
Do you know how many NUP meeting I attend and there value and importance. Now base on that meeting and make another decision you want. Not all MPs dies to be MPs. Some of you give an impression that we are dying to be MPs. I am 50 years and have been MP for 12 months.

Nobody can blackmail, me because of Parliament, I am past that. I won when I was not on NUP, I became a Member of Parliament on a DP ticket. I won, twice. That politics should end. If I am not a Member of Parliament, I die? Or I starve to death? They don’t know that some of us are tired of being MPs…it is not an issue of do or die.

There is life after parliament and there will be parliament after…Nobody on planet earth will blackmail me on a question of being a Member of Parliament. No one can put me under pressure.  Media, cease that propaganda. And you are creating a rift which is uncalled for. Let us be part of the solution, part of the problem…I am engaged heavily at the highest level of NUP to ensure all these other issues are addressed. I don’t need to attend these whatever meeting I am not around. Don’t lose focus. The focus is the removal of Museveni. Any political entity that loses that focus is playing a very big pass into the gallery and it doesn’t win any game, all political players should know that the problem of Uganda is Museveni and NRM.