TO CRUSH OR MASSAGE: Museveni & Speaker Anita Among Speak in Confusing Tongues on Corruption Fight

Two heads of two arms of government, the executive and legislators, in the doctrine of separation of powers: two different and confusing tongues in the fight against corruption. While President Yoweri Museveni has vowed to crush the corrupt officials in his government, Speaker Anita Among says the president may only hand a minimal punishment to MPs who have been arrested over corruption.

Speaker Anita Among is facing isolation from two foreign governments, the UK and the US, over her role in corrupt scandals in Uganda, including the one of theft or diversion of iron sheets meant for the poor people of the Karamoja sub region.

Some weeks ago, sanctions against her dominated national headlines and prompted meetings between her and the president, who is also the chairman of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) which she belongs to.

For months, social media activists have lifted the lead on the goings-on in Parliament, revealing what could be grand abuse of office, diversion and embezzlement of funds and, generally, corruption in the legislative arm of government that runs on a budget of hundreds of billions of Uganda shillings, most of it at the discretion of the Parliamentary Commission.

Members of the Commission are embroiled in a scandal over controversial service awards. Four commissioners, Mathias Mpuuga (Nyendo-Mukungwe), Solomon Silwany (Bukholi Central), Prossy Akampurira Mbabazi (Rubanda) and Esther Afoyochan (Zombo) face criticism over Shs1.17bn awarded to them as service awards.

In his state of the nation address delivered this month, Museveni vowed to crush corruption, saying he has enough evidence to pin officials in State House, Parliament of Uganda (MPs and staff) as well as officials from the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MoFPED).  (See Details Here and There).

He has since been waxing lyrical about his resolve to fight corruption and the arrest of the MPs has made some Ugandans believe that the president is, this time around, committed to deal with corrupt officials head-on.

“We are going to stamp out corruption. I don’t know how [the corrupt]  forget that we have got a lot of power and capacity which we shall use,” Museveni said after his finance minister read the 2024-25 budget estimates.

“These corrupt people insult our heroes. They have now attracted our full attention. We shall crush this treachery. This is really betrayal and we are going to finish it. It is really amazing how people don’t see. NRM is a very powerful force, I don’t know how anybody can think they can play around with it, we are very soft, we uses soft methods, we are always talking.”

In the past two weeks, at least five MPs have been arrested, arraigned in court and remanded over two corruption scandals: the compensation of cooperative societies and the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) budget saga. (See Details Here).

But juxtaposed with statements by Speaker Anita Among while in Lwengo District at the weekend, Museveni’s resolve or the semblance of it as epitomized in his recent pronouncements appear without potency.

“The President has heard your cries [of Lwengo District Woman MP Cissy Namujju’s supporters] where you said that when your child misbehaves, you beat and say go back and do something good,” she said.

Speaker Anita Among also said that Namujju, currently in prison, will be MP FOREVER as she shares with her voters. (Read Story Here).