Bobi: Speaker Among paid Mpuuga Shs500m as reward to sack Zaake as commissioner

KAMPALA. National Unity Platform (NUP) leader Bobi Wine has claimed Shs.500m paid to his deputy Mathias Mpuuga as “service fee” was a reward from Speaker Anita Among after the successful ouster of Mityana Municipality MP Francis Zaake as Parliament commissioner.

In his third statement about the controversial money heist that is now understood to be well over Shs.1.7bn, Bobi Wine has insisted Mpuuga is “corrupt and immoral” and must resign to save the face of his party.

Bobi alleges that he has credible information that on 6th May, 2022 Speaker Among convened a meeting in which Mpuuga attended and three other NRM commissioners and they shared Shs.1.7b.

“Two months after Hon. Zaake was illegally removed from that position (commissioner), these leaders awarded themselves a collective amount of 1.7 billion shillings,” Bobi Wine says giving details;  Hon. Mpuuga was allocated Shs500m, while the three others were each awarded 400 million shillings.

Bobi says that information came to light after Parliamentary Commission minutes were leaked to the public almost two years later this week.

“I convened an urgent meeting of senior leaders and Mpuuga admitted that the leaked minutes were genuine. He admitted that it was wrong and immoral and apologized (saying) he should never have involved himself in such,” Bobi wrote on X.

But in a statement of Friday, Mpuuga was ambiguous on the payment instead blamed intrigue, character assassination and family rule as being behind the Shs500m saga.

Bobi Wine in his statement said among the senior members save for Medard Ssegona who never attended, all Deputy Presidents, the Secretary General and Deputy Secretary General, the current Leader of the Opposition, the National Treasurer, Hon. Muwanga Kivumbi and Hon. Betty Nambooze were in attendance.

The meeting  according to bobi Wine, advised Mpuuga to step down from the Commission in public interest because that is what leaders do. 

“He requested for some time to consult with and prepare his family and other stakeholders, which we agreed to, because it was only fair. 

Unfortunately, following our public statement, Hon. Mpuuga has now released a statement apparently moving away from his earlier position and apology,” Bobi said pointing out 10 reasons why this money-heist was illegal, immoral and wrong- and totally unexpected from a person we delegated to represent our values in Parliament, and lead the charge against corruption and misuse of public resources. 

Bobi Wines reasons.

1.    As all former Leaders of the Opposition have confirmed, none of them ever received a ‘Service Award’. 

What was special about the service of Hon. Mpuuga to warrant a Service Award that was never given to his predecessors? Secondly, even if Hon. Mpuuga and the three NRM Parliamentary Commissioners had done anything exceptional, would it be up to them to sit and award themselves for a job well done? I mean, it defeats basic logic for anyone to say they are awarding themselves- moreover with hundreds of millions of tax payers’ money. Does that mean that every public servant should now sit in his office and allocate some money to themselves for feeling good about themselves and the work they do? 

2. In the widely shared minutes of the Parliamentary Commission, it was clearly indicated that the said money was ‘person to holder’- meaning that it would not extend to any of the former or subsequent Leaders of the Opposition. They would be the first and last to receive this money. In our meeting with Hon. Mpuuga, he stated that the reasoning here was that every incoming LOP should negotiate his or her own ‘Service Award’. Really? We asked, “What if the next LOP negotiates for 10 billion shillings of tax payers’ money as his or her Service Award? How would we explain this?”