State Minister for Lands, Sam Mayanja, has vowed to keep resisting temptations to accept bribes offered to him by those who want to push through illegal land deals.
During his visit to Luwero Lands Ministry Zonal Office at Bukalasa on December 02, Minister Mayanja revealed that he has received prayers from fellow ministers who warned him that the ministry was irredeemable due to corruption.
“Colleagues even in Cabinet were having pity on me for being deployed in such a Ministry. Many of them told me the only way to end corruption at Lands is for that Ministry to be abolished and closed down,” he said.
He further revealed that he would come face to face with the vice of corruption after the rich and well connected started tempting him with huge sums of money.
Further revealing that the negotiations for bribes are channeled through some of his friends, Mayanja swore he had resisted the temptation to chew the bribes.
“People, some of them very big, have been offering me big money but I have refused such things because I naturally despise such,” revealed the minister.
“Many have tried to woo me off certain things through people thought to be my very good friends and the kind of money that has been dangled at me is in sums I have never heard of in my entire life.”
With barely half a year in office, Mayanja says he was recently shocked when a typist at the Wakiso MZO sought to bribe him with Shs40m to stop her transfer to another MZO considered dry.
“When I heard of what she was offering, I wondered where a mere typist was getting Shs40m just like that, yet her salary is barely Shs1m, leave alone having the guts to attempt to bribe a whole Minister,” narrated the minister.
He said he will continue refusing bribes and doing his work well.
“Public office is a service and I have never perceived it as one where one makes money to become rich,” he noted.
“That is why some people are already laughing at me wondering why I keep intervening into land wrangles and resolving things without soliciting for bribes from those I help.”
Additional Reporting & Translation/Courtesy
