The three Ugandan Members of Parliament who were recently detained on suspicion of corruption have been brought before the Anti-Corruption Court in Kampala where they were charged and sent to Luzira Prison.
Court records indicate they solicited a percentage share of the Uganda Human Rights Commission’s 2024/25 budget, promising to influence its increase.
The trio has pleaded not guilty.
Heavy-armed detectives drove Paul Akamba, Yusuf Mutembuli, and Cissy Namujju to the court’s location in Nakasero on Wednesday afternoon.
Mutembuli is the vice head of the Parliament’s Legal Committee, and Cissy Namujju is the Lwengo Woman Member of Parliament.
In parliament, Akamba represents Busiki County.
The politicians are charged with working with Ministry of Finance officials to bribe accounting staff to approve government agency budgets.
Yesterday, the police searched the residences on Entebbe Road, Mukono, and Naalya of the NRM MPs who were arrested.
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.
