President Yoweri Museveni’s area Member of Parliament (MP) Col Fred Mwesigye on Friday returned Shs20 million to the Parliamentary Commission’s Bank of Uganda (BoU) account. The money was recently allocated to each MP to help them engage actively in the fight against COVID-19 outbreak in the country.
Parliament allocated itself Shs10 billion off the Shs304 billion supplementary budget that was appropriated to different sectors, which are involved in the fight against the spread of the Coronavirus.
And while most MPs on both government and opposition sides have sworn never to return the money but use it to help their constituents, a few such as Masaka legislator Mathias Mpuuga, Kyadondo East’s Robert Kyagulanyi have already returned the money despite criticism from Speaker Rebecca Kadaga.
But not many people expected Nyabushozi County MP Col Fred Mwesigye to return the money.
After returning the money, Mwesigye, a retired UPDF officer who also participated in Uganda’s liberation struggle under Museveni, said: “whereas I support that MPs should be facilitated to join the war against Covid19, I disagreed with the way that money was put into the budget. If it had come from the Commission, I wouldn’t have had a problem.”
Pushed further, Col Mwesigye insisted that even if the court order secured by MPs Gerald Karuhanga (Ntungamo Municipality) and Jonathan Odur (Erute South) had directed that the legislators take the money, he wouldn’t have accepted it.
“Even if the court order came saying we can use the money still I would oppose using it because it was unwarranted allocation at a time when resources are urgently needed for COVID19 frontline health workers,” the MP responded to critics who accused him of returning the money to gain cheap popularity instead of helping dairy farmers in Kiruhura district.
Meanwhile, Mwesigye has received praises from politicians such as Democratic Party (DP) President General Norbert Mao, and Kampala Central MP hopeful Cedric Babu who said it was “very honourable” of the Nyabushozi legislator to return the cash.
“Thank you Col Fred Mwesigye. It is not for nothing that you’re RO/00027. This 10bn/- kickback stinks to the high heavens. Very proud to call you my friend! Let others call it populism if they will but it is a moral challenge to the greedy traitors on both sides of the House aisle,” said Mao.
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