Security was tight at the Police’s Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) headquarters in Kibuli, Kampala yesterday, as three legislators appeared for questioning over a range of cases including alleged extortion and demanding money with menaces.
After five hours of questioning and statement recording, the MPs were led to waiting Police cars and transferred to Kira Division Police Station in Kira municipality, Wakiso district, where they were detained.
Our Sources have learnt that several MPs were summoned last week by the Police through the Speaker of Parliament, Anita Annet Among, on instructions from CID headed by Assistant Inspector General of Police Tom Magambo.
Sources indicated that the legislators allegedly demanded money from accounting officers to facilitate the passing of budgets.
The finance minister is set to read the budget on Thursday. Although detectives at CID were tight-lipped on the details of the investigations, it emerged that the MPS quizzed include Cissy Dionizia Namujju (Lwengo District Woman MP), Yusuf Mutembuli (Bunyole East) and Paul Akamba (Busiki County).
How it started
The summoning, quizzing and detention of the MPs followed President Museveni’s state of the nation address on Thursday, where he said he had evidence against corrupt officials in Parliament and the finance ministry.
Museveni asked MN whether those found to be involved in corrupt practices (transactional budgeting) should be given amnesty, but the MN answered in unison with a resounding “noon…”
This prompted the President to agree to proceed with legal action against the “dishonest” individuals intentionally engaged in corruption.
The President said legislators were colluding with accounting officers to allocate public resources in exchange for kickbacks. Although he did not mention names of the suspects, a tough talking Museveni said the evidence confirmed the long-standing rumours of graft in the annual appropriation of taxpayers’ money.
He likened such individuals to traitors and suggested that some corrupt officials might need “counselling” if their wrongdoings were unintentional.
The President is said to have ordered CID to record statements from the implicated officials to have them prosecuted.
Museveni urged MPs to stop altering the budget and only make recommendations, emphasising that the budget was his responsibility.
The President said another source of corruption has been “the fundraising that is borne mainly by opportunistic politicians who are overanxious to please their electorate by pledging money for fundraising that they do not have.”
Museveni said: “We are due to meet to resolve this diversion.” He said fundraising is “part of the pressure that makes leaders make mistakes.” Still, in the context of corrupt officials, the President argued that a distinction is made “between mistake makers and dishonest people”, saying the latter are worse.
“The dishonest and traitors are the ones we are targeting. For the mistake makers, we can cancel them and make them know how to do things — because if we are to punish all mistake makers, we would have nobody to work with,” Museveni said.
What MPs said “If the President can take a stand on corruption, then it will be good,” said Elgon County MP Ignatius Wamakuyu Mudimi.
“Let him facilitate the agencies fighting corruption and empower them. Let the agencies fighting corruption do their work.”
Besides, Mudimi, several other MPs welcomed the President’s stance on corruption, saying the vice hampers service delivery in many sectors.
“The President has confirmed that there is corruption in the finance ministry and Parliament. Government departments are turning the budget into deals,” Moroto Municipality MP Francis Lorika Adome said.
Also based on the President’s address, Mityana North MP Muhamad Kibedi Nsegumire said all citizens must come out to fight corruption.
“This country belongs to all of us, we should take responsibility in fighting corruption.” Joy Peggy Wako, who represents older persons in Parliament, said she trusts that Museveni will fight corruption, having admitted that the vice is damaging government programmes. Weeding out vice
In the wake of President Yoweri Museveni’s state of the nation address, Ugandans are rife with expectations. As legislators are called for investigations into corruption, how will the fight against graft progress?
Give MPs a fair hearing When contacted, Parliament’s director of communication and public affairs, Chris Obore, denied having direct knowledge of the detention of the legislators, saying the Police were better placed to comment about it. “If they (Police) followed the rightful procedure of summoning the MPs through the Speaker, the detention is a rightful action,” Obore said.
“The President (Yoweri Museveni) talked about fighting corruption last week. As far as I know, the President’s actions are usually evidence-based. The Police must assess the evidence to guide them in their investigations and also give the implicated legislators a fair hearing.”
Sources privy to the probe, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said several other legislators and public servants have been lined up for questioning.
“This is just the start and they are going after everybody implicated in the scam,” revealed the source.
When asked about the arrests, Police spokesperson Fred Enanga declined to comment and referred New Vision to the CID boss (Tom Magambo). While addressing journalists at the Police headquarters in Naguru, Kampala earlier yesterday, Enanga said the Police would keep the public informed in case of any developments.
What civil society says Robert Kakuru, the executive director of Kick Corruption out of Uganda, said if the President endorses the legal provision that allows the recovery of assets from corrupt officials, he will have given Ugandans the best in this battle.
Kakuru called on the Government to introduce a whistleblower’s fund to boost the fight against corruption.
Charity Kalebbo Ahimbisibwe, the executive director of the Electoral Laws Institute, said if the President makes a promise, Ugandans need to see action.
“He promised to deal with the corrupt. What we are seeing is a good step in the right direction. It is a welcome move and we hope we get to the end of it,” she said.
Dorothy Kesiime, the Forum for Women in Democracy officer in charge of western Uganda, said if assets from culprits of corruption are sold off to recover what they embezzled, it will deter other intending officials from doing the same.
“We should make the cost of corruption too expensive to bear and this will help us fight this challenge. Corruption has greatly affected our communities, workplaces and day-to-day lives,” she said.
Recently, anti-corruption activists from Kigezi subregion asked the Government to adopt a strategy focusing on asset recovery from convicts of corruption.
They argued that despite a surge in anti-corruption crusades, the damage has deepened in public offices, widening social inequality and ruining service delivery.
