A rift seems to be brewing at National Unity Platform (NUP) camp after Members of Parliament have chosen to defy their president to retain a UGX 40m cash price reportedly dished out to them.
The money is said to be a token of appreciation to legislators for allegedly passing a series of bills and a 77 billion supplementary classified budget. It was partly allocated to State House for classified expenditure and the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) got Shs152b under the Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs, for the Operation Shujaa, the ongoing joint UPDF-Congolese army missionamong others.
Sources privy to this website reveal that close to 50 Mps subscribing to the biggest opposition party in Parliament received the cash and are not ready to refund it.
The hard cash was reportedly handed to legislators on Saturday and Sunday in Parliament and at the residence of Speaker Anita Among.
Following the cash bonanza, NUP boss Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, quarreled and directed his flock to return the money with immediate effect.
A fuming Bobi delegated the Leader of Opposition to collectively receive the money from Mps and hand it back to its giver.
However, this has not happened, the legislators have refused to heed to Bobi’s stern directive to return the money in 48 hours.
The leadership at the party claims none of the members have shown up to the NUP offices to refund the cash token.
Affected Mps who spoke on condition of anonymity say they will not refund money because even Parliament has cleared their name by disclaiming the allegations.
They further state that even if it was not the case, they wouldn’t refund the money because it is merely a token for something that already passed and not a bribe.
On Wednesday, Parliament of Uganda the (NUP) for attempting to tarnish the reputation of the August house with baseless reports of illegal cash handouts.
This is after the party leaked news 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.
The Party’s leadership held a crisis meeting and directed the legislators to immediately return the mysterious cash, whose direct intentions remain a mystery.
In a statement dated June 15 and released by the Director Public Relations at Parliament Chris Obore, he said 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. He 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 explained 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.
