Parliament of Uganda blasted the National Unity Platform(NUP) for attempting to tarnish the reputation of the August house with baseless reports of illegal cash handouts.
On Tuesday, the biggest opposition party with representation in Parliament alleged that its MPs were secretly called to the residence of the Speaker Anita Among over the weekend and handed hard cash worth UGX 40 million each.
The Party’s leadership held a crisis meeting and directed the legislators to immediately return the mysterious cash, whose direct intentions remain a mystery.
NUP boss Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine quarreled and asked MPs subscribing to his party to return the cash,claiming they are pursuing double standards by secretly baging the money.
Bobi Wine directed that the money be taken back through the Leader of Opposition Mathias Mpuuga for collective return.
After the meeting attended by 25 Mps, Joel Ssenyonyi, the spokesperson of NUP stated that three MPs confessed to receiving the cash.
“ We gave them a chance to explain and some say that they were hoodwinked. But we told them there is everything wrong with this money. MPs receive their salary through their bank accounts. For you to be called to go to Anita Among’s home in the middle of the night to pick money, there is everything wrong with it,” Ssenyonyi said on Tuesday
However in a statement dated June 15 and released by the Director Public Relations at Parliament Chris Obore, he says the NUP is preying on a hard built image and using the wrong procedures to address the allegations.
Obore first trashed the reports that 40m shillings cash handouts were given to Mps under unclear circumstances.
Obore challenged the opposition party to opt for the right channels to address the matter instead of running to allege baseless information to the media.
“If indeed there has been such payment to Mps outside the known procedure as the NUP claims couldn’t it have been right for the party to interest the accountability committees chaired by its members in the matter with evidence for action” he said
Obore explains that legislators have never been handed hard cash from parliament except through their respective accounts. He says that the procedure for money to get to a legislator is through the consolidated account which is in turn remitted to an individual account.
Obore further states that the NUP MPs who allege receipt of the money are bound by section 10 of the penal code act 2002 to report the matter to the Inspectorate of Government for a thorough investigation.
He accused the media of being baised in reporting the matter and dragging Parliament in the mud.
“It is unfortunate that a section of the media has picked up and published yet they ought to interrogate these claims with professional fairness and rigor,the image of parliament should not be sacrificed at the altar of the internal party . Parliament belongs to the citizens and not individual political parties. Respect to Parliament is respect to citizens” he said
