Plot to ‘sink’ Kadaga over MP’s salary increment leaks

By our reporter

Last week, a supplementary request which indicated that parliament wants additional money to cater for the salary increment of 452 MPs  – a raise of more than 100 per cent from the current salary of Shs 11 million per month to Shs 24 million leaked.

However, the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga came out to rubbish the reports saying that there have been no attempts to increase or adjust salaries for MPs. She went ahead to advise the MPs and members of the public to ignore the reports.

Now, the Parliamentary Commission has revealed that the move was intended  to malign the Speaker and the entire institution of parliament over the alleged pay raise to legislators, The Public Lens can reveal.

According to The Public Lens, one of the members of the commission also Usuk County MP, Peter Ogwang, laid bare the attempt by some individuals working behind the scenes to bring into disrepute the person of the speaker and members of parliament as a “bunch of greedy fellows whose preoccupation is making money.”

“Some people are fighting the speaker [Rebecca Kadaga], they want to make her look so bad before the eyes of the public, and they are also fighting us the legislators. So, they had to sit down and concoct a report that we are working to raise our salaries. This is not true,” said Ogwang, adding that “MPs are aware of the national pressing needs, and thus have no plans to increase their salaries,”

In his detailed response to this allegation, parliament’s director of communications Chris Obore dismissed the said leaked report as a “Nasser Road job.”

“Respect for the reader is demonstrated by giving them what is verifiable, not what hypnotises them,” he said.

“What the reporters touted as a leaked budget paper was a half-page print-out possibly of someone’s concoction on their computer or simply a Nasser Road (a street in Kampala known for printing fake official documents) job,” elaborates Obore, adding: “A budget framework paper is a public document and that is why it has to be presented before parliament for budget legitimization. Surely, a hardworking and committed journalist should be capable of getting the document!”