In an update on the move to censure four commissioners of Parliament – including Mathias Mpuuga – over the Shs1.7bn cash award, it has emerged that only 145 MPs have appended their signatures to the censure motion.
The movers of the motion require 177 signatures before they can issue a notice of motion. Lead mover of the censure motion, Theodore Ssekikubo, the Lwemiyaga County MP, has postponed the deadline for the signing of the motion more than twice now. Ssekikubo had hoped to close the exercise today but he now says he will continue receiving those willing to append their signatures.
Three weeks trying to get MPs to back him, he said there is no rule giving him a time limit in which to collect the signatures.
“We aren’t curtailed by the 14days because we haven’t issued the notice. Bearing in mind the wind and the current storm in which the current Parliament is involved and engulfed, it is only wise that you step forward,” he said on June 10.
“What we are doing is collect signatures so that the debate can start. A lot has been said about the evidence, if you know you are right, let us have the debate.”
From Ssekikubo’s Ssembabule District, only two MPs – himself and Gorreth Namugga of Mawogola South – have signed the censure motion.
If signing the censure motion is a measure of commitment to fight corruption, then Mubende District is the best in the anti-graft crusade. All its five MPs have appended their signatures.
Its MPs are David Kabanda of Kasambya County, Bashir Lubega of Mubende Municipality, William Museveni of Buwekula South, Pascal Mbabazi of Buwekula and Grania Nakazibwe (the Mubende District Woman MP).
As the collecting of signature continues, Ssekikubo has appealed to Mpuuga and other commissioners named in the scandal to sign.
“I think I will call upon the Commissioners themselves who plead that they are innocent to append the signatures so that they can be exonerated in full broad day light. I know this is the only opportunity they have,” said Ssekikubo.
Amidst summons for MPs, parliamentary staff and finance ministries to appear before CID for interrogation, Ssekikubo has described the current situation as “a storm.”
“You have a storm engulfing Parliament, MPs being summoned left and right to the Criminal Investigation Directorate,” he said.
“This is the first time in my tenure that I am seeing the kind of storm that is currently engulfing Parliament.”
MPs who have signed censure motion (1-10)
Ssekikubo has claimed that some MPs have been told to take trips abroad and others put under pressure from above to withdraw their signatures. (See Details Here and There).
In his state of the nation address last week, President Yoweri Museveni vowed to crush corrupt officials, telling Ugandans that he had evidence on a corruption racket involving officials from the finance ministry and MPs. (Read Stories Here and There).
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