By Watchdog reporter
Last week on Saturday,State Minister for Labor, Employment and Industrial Relations Herbert Kabafunzaki was netted red handed while taking a bribe from AYA Group proprietor Hamid Muhammad in order to halt sexual harassment investigations against him.
He was arrested from Kampala Serena Hotel. However much that he was caught red handed the minister denied to have taken any bribe citing that he was being framed.
Meanwhile, senior journalist Andrew Mwenda sees the whole bribe story in another perspective, he strongly questions the credibility of the story.
According to Mwenda, Hamid is so good at diverting the people’s attention from the core reasons and now he has done it. He has successfully diverted public attention from allegations of sexual assault to the minister taking a bribe.
Mwenda’s full statement;
I hate mass hysteria. The mob forced Pontius Pilate to sentence Jesus to death by chanting crucify him, crucify him yet Jesus had done nothing wrong. The democratic assembly of Athens did the same to the father of western philosophy, Socrates, the noblest man ever to have lived.
Now I am not suggesting that this minister is innocent. But was he actually caught “red-handed” receiving the bribe? I know Hamid very well and I would not put my money on his integrity. He has succeeded in diverting public attention from allegations of sexual assault to the minister taking a bribe. He knows how easily gullible the public is and he is winning. Not with me.
Where is the evidence the minister asked for a bribe? A friend sent me an audio where the minister asks to meet Hamid but he clearly says he doesn’t want anything from him. I agree there are serious ethical problems with the minister asking to meet privately with a suspect he is investigating. But knowing Hamid my antenna of suspicion is up.
Anyone can call a minister to a meeting and hand him a bag of money as police and cameras swoop in to “prove” he was receiving a bribe. So even video footage of the minister being handed a bag of cash is not sufficient to prove he asked for and was receiving a bribe. It could be a set up. The only reliable proof is a conversation where Kabafunzaki asks for the bribe and agrees to a meeting where to get it in cash.
Social media allows information to fly fast and people to rush to conclusions. This can easily lead to the kind of mob action that led to the crucifixion of Jesus. I am not suggesting in any way that Kabafunzaki is an honorable man. However if he is to be condemned for taking a bribe, bring the evidence. So far, for all the hullabaloo, no evidence has yet been provided.
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