Shs 100m ‘bribe’ splits NUP MPs

Robert Kyagulanyi, the National Unity Platform (NUP) president, has warned members of his party not to be tempted to accept Shs 100 million each that he says was part of the supplementary budget that was passed last week by parliament.

However, his decision has been met with defiance from some party MPs, who accuse him of double standards. Speaking to journalists on December 12, 2023 at his party headquarters at Makerere-Kavule in Kampala, Kyagulanyi said of the Shs 3.5 trillion supplementary budget that was passed by parliament, Shs 55.6 billion was meant to ‘thank’ parliament for agreeing to pass the budget.

Kyagulanyi said they had got irrefutable information that of the Shs 78.6 billion that was passed for State House’s classified expenditure, Shs 55.6 billion is to be given to the 529 MPs, including ex-officios, with each taking home Shs 100 million.

“Imagine Shs 55.6 billion just going to MPs as a bribe! I want to use this opportunity to warn our MPs that we know about this and we have broken it to the population. I have said it many times and I will say it today that I will tell the truth and I will not defend or protect anybody that gets involved in this grand theft. With the way our taxpayers’ money is used now, you know why our roads are in such a bad state, you know why our schools are in such a sad state, now you know why the regime wants to silence us and now you know why the regime is bringing all manner of diversions in order to cover up for that,” Kyagulanyi said.

The Observer reached out to several NUP MPs but they insisted they haven’t received the Shs 100m.

“Please don’t quote me but just know many of my colleagues are masters at playing to the gallery because at the end of the day, they will not return the Shs 100m if it falls onto their accounts,” said the MP, who represents a constituency in Greater Masaka region.

“Even Kyagulanyi knows that some of his closes people in parliament took the Shs 40m last year but he turned a blind eye. Why come up now?”

Another MP who represents a constituency in Wakiso district but preferred not to be named says it will be foolhardy for the party to force the MPs to return the money.

“He [Kyagulanyi] always speaks with emotions but if we are to sit down as a party, each of us can offer to partake part of the Shs 100m and put it into party coffers to help families of our supports who have fallen victims of the regime. As for me, I will not return the money and would rather use it for development projects in my constituency.”

Speaking at the same press briefing, Mathias Mpuuga Nsamba, the leader of opposition in parliament, said although the money hasn’t yet been received, they have no doubt that it is what is contained in the classified expenditure of State House.

“No member has picked money yet but the money is in the supplementary and we are raising a red flag to all and sundry that that money is illegally contained in the supplementary and therefore we don’t expect any MP subscribing to the opposition to go and get that money. If the money is on your account, our expectation is that you will send it back to the sender. If it’s given to you in cash, our expectation is that you reject it,” Mpuuga said.

HOW THE MONEY WAS PASSED

Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi, the shadow minister for Finance, said that in the schedules that were given to parliament before the budget was passed, it didn’t contain the additional Shs 78.6 billion for State House. However, Muwanga said, in the subsequent schedules given to the speaker of parliament, the classified budget of State House had been varied.

“After parliament had passed the supplementary, a document at the tail end signed by Matia Kasaija, the minister of Finance was smuggled to the speaker. It had Shs 78.6 billion out of which it had 55.6 billion that was for classified expenditure under State House. In the normal budget, State House had been allocated Shs 412 billion of which Shs 88 billion was classified,” Muwanga said.

In the schedule that this newspaper has seen, an additional Shs 23 billion is also included in the budget which is going into the organization of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) that will be sitting in Kampala in January next year. Asked how he got to know that the Shs 55.6 billion was meant for bribing MPs, Muwanga said he knows because he sits on appropriations committees of parliament and, therefore, he knows some of the government players who are responsible for such things.

“By the time we wrote our minority report, the schedule had not been availed at the end of the plenary when we had adopted the supplementary schedules. It was smuggled in through an irregular way. Anybody who wants to challenge me on that, let them tell us where the Shs 40 million that was given to each MP last financial year was got from. That’s why I have argued that classified expenditures are conduits through which taxpayers’ money is stolen. It is unfortunate that State House is now being used for such evil schemes,” Muwanga said.

In the 2022/2023 financial year, each MP was given Shs 40 million for also helping in the smooth passage of the supplementary budget of that year. It was reported that the Shs 40 million for each MP was contained the State House classified expenditure. It was reported then that the MPs picked the money from the house of the speaker of parliament, Annet Anita Among.

When Kyagulanyi got wind of it, he instructed all his MPs to return the money to the person who had given it to them. However, Among vehemently denied that she had given any MPs money. Of the 57 MPs belonging to NUP, only Twaha Kagabo of Bukoto South tried to return the money.

However, he was also forced to apologize to parliament and the speaker after he was arrested by the Inspectorate of Government officials. In the end, he also denied that he had been given money by the speaker. Asked about what he will do to his MPs this this time round if they accept the money, Kyagulanyi conceded that there is nothing much he can do other than exposing them.

“We don’t have the police to arrest them, but we will expose them for who they are,” Kyagulanyi said. Efforts to speak to Kasaija or his deputy, Henry Musasizi, were futile as they never picked nor returned our calls.

Under the law, there is a limited number of MPs who are allowed to scrutinize in camera the classified expenditure of government. The ministry of Defence, State House and the Office of the President are entities that are most prone to asking for classified expenditures, which now goes in trillions.

In the current supplementary budget, State House alone was given Shs 352.957 billion under classified expenditure. It remains to be seen how the whole situation will unfold in NUP, but insiders intimate that 90 per cent of the opposition MPs will pocket the Shs 100m and the issue will pass on with time.

BLURRED STATEMENTS

Meanwhile, on the controversy that Kyagulanyi courted last week after speaking to the BBC, in which he said his MPs passed the Anti-Homosexuality Act because they work for Museveni, he said even when as a straight man with a wife and children, he disagrees with homosexuality, he nonetheless, wouldn’t wish for their death. Kyagulanyi said in 2013 when he was still a musician, he called for the burning of all homosexuals but as a leader, he has changed his stance.

“People grow and transform and as a leader, I transformed from calling for the death of people that differ from me. Regime propagandists tried as much as possible to twist my words but as a leader, I want to lead people even those that are not like me,” Kyagulanyi said.

He added that this issue has been turned from a moral issue into a political issue and it is used by Museveni as a political weapon.

“Whenever Museveni sees that he has no popular support, he picks up on something that he thinks will pick him support once again. I also mentioned that some of my MPs work with Museveni; it is a fact. Some you know them, some you don’t know them yet,” Kyagulanyi said.

He, however, refused to be drawn in the debate of whether he supports the Act or not regardless of what was Museveni’s calculus was when he passed it. Kyagulanyi also deflected the question of whether he thinks all his MPs who almost unanimously passed the bill were compromised by Museveni.

“I will only say what I want to say; you will not force me to say what you want me to say. This law was brought to target the opposition because they knew whatever I say, I will be watched by the West, but I’m not stupid. Therefore, it’s very important that you can’t trick us using that law because it was brought to trick us and we are smarter than that. You die in your movie, Museveni!” Kyagulanyi said.

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