Mathias Mpuuga, the Nyendo-Mukungwe MP, has refused to resign his position as parliamentary commissioner over a Shs500m corruption unearthed by the ongoing online protest dubbed #UgandaParliamentExhibition.
Mpuuga faces charges of abuse of office and corruption, according to his National Unity Platform (NUP).
Mpuuga, who is also the deputy president (Buganda) for the main opposition party, has cited witch-hunt and ignorance of parliamentary rules as the some of the reasons behind calls by the party’s principal Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu aka Bobi Wine.
In a space of about 24 hours, a crossfire of sorts has begun between NUP and Mpuuga – who is still the party’s deputy president.
BOBI WINE (NUP) VS MPUUGA (NUP)
Thursday, February 29, 2024: I CHEWED THE MONEY BUT I’M SORRY: Mpuuga Confesses Before Bobi Wine
STATEMENT ON CORRUPTION AND ABUSE OF OFFICE
There is an ongoing online protest under the hashtag #UgandaParliamentExhibition. The protest has exposed the massive corruption, abuse of office and gross mismanagement of public affairs by the leadership of the Parliament of Uganda and other leaders.
Unfortunately, the protest has not only revealed grand corruption on the side of NRM leaders. Some leaders on the opposition side have had serious allegations of corruption leveled against them. Specifically, our former Leader of the Opposition in Parliament andcurrent Parliamentary Commissioner, Rt. Hon. Mathias Mpuuga alongside three other Parliamentary Commissioners have been accused of irregularly awarding themselves huge sums of tax-payers’ money on the pretext of “Service Awards”.
Under the scheme, Rt. Hon. Mpuuga was allocated 500,000,000/= (Five Hundred Million Uganda Shillings).
On Wednesday 28″ February 2024, the President convened an urgent meeting comprised of senior leaders of the Party including all Deputy Presidents and some of our senior legislators. At the meeting, Rt. Hon. Mpuuga admitted that he indeed took part in this wrong doing and apologised for the same. In light of this, he was strongly advised that the moral thing to doin the circumstances is to step down from his role as Parliamentary Commissioner with immediate effect.
The nation will recall that the values of the National Unity Platform are Discipline, Reliability, Inclusiveness, Integrity, Patriotism and Service. All actions of corruption and abuse of office go contrary to these values. They also go contrary to the Integrity Oath which every leader of the Party swore at the start of this term.
We therefore ask our leaders at all levels to do self-reflection and recommit themselves to these values and the Oath they took to shun and fight corruption in all its forms.
Friday, March 1, 2024: Mpuuga Refuses to Resign, Blames Those Seeking to Character Assassinate Him
MALICIOUS CORRUPTION AND ABUSE OF OFFICE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST ME
Fellow Countrymen,
My attention has been drawn to an unsigned document purportedly attributed to my Party, the National Unity Platform; calling for my resignation inter-alia based on falsehoods and terrible misapprehension of facts including basic ones.
Let me initially reconfirm my commitment to the core values of the Party, which I verily understand and cherish more than many now, embroiled in mischief. I shall continue to be of service to my Party among others in helping to educate all those interested and able to learn the culture of institutional building.
The duties and roles of the Parliamentary Commission are well stipulated in the laws of the land, and couched in basic language, an issue I shared and labored to educate my comrades with whom we interacted in an informal conversation at the party offices.
It is the same commission that votes funds to all political offices, including the LOP’s office.
It takes care of the welfare of ordinary members and their leaders in Parliament, including determining the range of legally permissible payments, that may be salary, allowances, gratuity, honoraria, car grants among others.
The decisions of the commission are not personal but collective in nature, and for anyone to purport to make them personal decisions of an individual is a deliberate, well-crafted malicious campaign designed for character assassination.
Every decision of the Commission to confer or reward anyone under its charge, is subjected to the relevant committees of Parliament for legality, feasibility, sustainability and relevancy.
To call any such payments corruption is the highest level of spite, double standards and deliberate misrepresentation to the public and membership of the Party on a purely selfish and malicious mission.
If such payments amounted to corruption, all current and previous MPs would be compelled to refund to the public coffers monies paid as gratuity or honoraria; since no MP, current and previous was not paid gratuity at the determination of the parliamentary Commission.
The general public has every right and must be encouraged to question the decisions of their leaders at every level. This right should never be exploited by self-seekers, opportunists and populists to undermine, berate and smear those they consider in unpalatable terms to their brand of politics.
The campaign to character assassinate me is deliberate, and I am perfectly aware. It’s well orchestrated and well-funded. I am ready for the worst, if it takes this sacrifice to return sanity and common sense to our politics.
I am available as ever to help this young party get rid any form of corruption from its rank and file and especially that ingrained at the base of the party.
I accordingly decline the cowardly call on me to resign as a parliamentary Commissioner, based on spite, and deliberate misrepresentation for mischievous reasons.
The general public is aware and alive to the internal intrigue and machinations unfortunately within this young party over the last 2 and a half years, during my occupation of the coveted office of the LOP. It became the official style of different party leaders to undermine my work, including hiring of bloggers to abuse and insult my person.
I stayed committed and calm throughout these most compelling times, because the call to serve above self remained my creed. I wish to assure the general membership of NUP and all change seeking forces that, this shall remain my resolve; and that not any of my actions while leading the opposition as the LOP amounted to corruption or abuse of office.
I commit that, I’ll not be deterred by small-group- family interests being peddled to blur the bigger picture of how the Party is being managed without transparency, and the general mistreatment of other leaders in the party.
I will not stop raising important questions on the actions, motivation and direction of different actors in the Party, even in the face of the current tribulations, well-choreograph o undermine me.
Mathias Mpuuga has previously been quoted as saying that Bobi Wine cannot tell him what to do. (Read StoryHere).
Weeks ago, Bobi Wine fired Mpuuga as Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LoP), replacing him with Joel Ssenyonyi. (See DetailsHere, There and OverThere).
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