NRM members issue tough dossier demanding Museveni to get rid of alleged errant top leaders in Parliament 

LIKE the Biblical zealots, a Jewish political sect who waged war against Roman occupiers and wanted every Jews to join in the struggle, a group of NRM cadres has generated a letter petitioning the party chairman who is also the President of the Republic of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Museveni asking his to reign over alleged corruption and abuse of office at the 11 Parliament.

It should be noted that the issue of alleged cash bonanza has dominated both mainstream and social media platforms following an online protest dubbed #Uganda Parliament Exhibition#led by Makerere University lecturer Dr Spire Ssentongo and another anti corruption activist Dr Agather Athuaire.

Although the leadership of Parliament headed by the Speaker Anette Anita Among has thrashed the allegations as malicious being propagated by some people because of her strong stand against homosexuality, the two politicians think otherwise.

Former Makindye East MP who is renowned for his fight against corruption John Ssimbwa and Ibrahim Kamihanda Mirembe the former NRM flag bearer for Kawempe Mayoral race signed the 14th March, 2024 strongly worded petition.

The two NRM diehards in their six page petition base their petition on a number of articles as embedded in Uganda’s Law Books which they hope are grounds for the President as the Fountain of Honor to sanction the errant politicians who have put the name of the ruling party to shame.

We talked to John Ssimbwa in a brief telephone interview where he made it clear that they have no personal vendetta against any politician or groups but that NRM is a party of accountability.

Here at Watchdog Uganda we reproduce verbatim a copy of the petition.

Read on:

14th March 2024

To His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni

President of the Republic of Uganda and National Chairman of the National Resistance Movement

STATE HOUSE 

ENTEBBE

Your Excellency Sir,

 

REF: PETITION

 

PREAMBLE

This petition is presented to you Sir on behalf of Ugandans who cherish the rule of law, accountability, transparency and good governance. 

Your Excellency Sir, WE ARE AWARE that Article 99 (1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda vests the Executive Authority of Uganda in you as the President of Uganda and provides that you shall exercise this authority in accordance with the Constitution and the laws of Uganda;

WE ARE FURTHER AWARE Your Excellency that the government of Uganda that you lead has through Parliament enacted several laws to curb the vice of corruption,

WE ARE ALSO COGNISANT Your Excellency of the existence of the law to enforce the leadership code AND OTHER laws to guide the proper utilization and management of public funds;

WHEREAS ARTICLE 85 (1) of the Constitution of the Uganda provides that a member of Parliament shall be paid such emoluments, such a gratuity and pension, and shall be provided with such facilities as may be determined by Parliament AND  FURTHER COGNISANT of the fact that this constitutional provision is operationalized by section 6(g) and (h) of the Administration of Parliament Act that mandates the Parliamentary Commission to make recommendations to Parliament on or with the approval of Parliament determine the allowances payable and privileges available to the Speaker, Deputy Speaker and members of Parliament; 

WE NOW OBSERVE AS FOLLOWS Your Excellency;

1. THAT even though the framers of Article 85 of the Constitution of Uganda wanted to enforce the principle of separation of power and independence of parliament and provided that parliament determines its own emoluments and such other facilities as pension and gratuity believing that it could do so fairly, justly, transparently and reasonably BUT it now appears that there is now a suspected cabal at Parliament that has allegedly run amok with a financial bonanza (although it is yet to be verified) operating under the cover of Article 85 of the Constitution of Uganda and other relevant provisions of the Administration of Parliament Act.
2. THAT the leadership of Parliament is allegedly illicitly amassing a lot of wealth in form of properties purchased or co-owned, houses built and or renovated, expensive furniture procured, all amounting to millions of dollars whose sources are suspect AND the public outside there believes that this may be illicit enrichment which is against the Leadership Code Act and the Anti-Corruption Act as amended. 
3. THAT some members of the Commission of Parliament among them the former leader of opposition Hon. Mathias Mpuga, Hon. Solomon Siliwany, Hon. Prossy Akampurira Mbabazi and Hon. Esther Afoyochan allegedly shared ug. Shillings 1.7 bn in what was termed as a “service award” under unclear circumstances AND to the public the action of these members of the Commission constitutes a conflict of interest which is against the Leadership Code Act And the so called service award might be a benefit or gift or a favor given to the Commissioners as a form of gratification in exchange for any other act or omission in the performance of the duties of the public function of a commissioner because unless otherwise proved those so called service awards are not backed by any law neither were they appropriated for that particular role AND the public believes that any conversion, transfer or disposal of public funds for purposes unrelated to that for which the funds were intended, for the benefit of that officer or for the benefit of a third party is diversion of public funds under the Anti-corruption Act.
4. THAT the accounting officer of Parliament appears to have failed in his duties and responsibilities under the Public Finance Management Act AND the general public believes and feels that he should be held personally accountable in case it is established beyond reasonable doubt that he faulted any laws of Uganda. Your Excellency Sir, Article 164(2) of the Constitution of Uganda provides that “any person holding a political or public office who directs or concurs in the use of public funds contrary to existing instructions shall be accountable for any loss arising from that use and shall be required to make good the loss even if he or she has ceased to hold that office”. This is therefore the time Your Excellency to establish whether parliament lost public funds during this money heist as exposed by #Uganda ParliamentExihibition. 
5. THAT there appears to be fictitious expenses/payouts in Parliament if we are to go by #Uganda ParliamentExihibition which has been trending on social media and if left un investigated it may portray Parliament and the whole NRM government as institutions that are vastly incompetent when it comes to managing taxpayers’ money. This “money heist” in Parliament may make people believe that government is out of touch with people’s problems and that it is inconsiderate. 
6. THAT even though the laws of Uganda provide for procedures and processes through which potential and qualified individuals access jobs in Parliament, it is alleged and now appears that there are individuals who have accessed jobs and are now employed as staff of Parliament without going through the legal procedures and processes. 
7. THAT even though your government created a “forest of anti-corruption agencies” with an aim of detecting, fighting and eliminating corruption in government institutions, the alleged “money heist” in Parliament has now proved that all these Anti-Corruption agencies cannot “sniff the stench” of corruption and the public believes that this might be “syndicate corruption” which involves a network of strategically placed public officers who collude to embezzle public funds with impunity. The public further believes that the embezzlers have a lot of influence and connections within the anti-corruption and investigative agencies of government and that they can indirectly influence the outcome of any audit or investigation.   

BECAUSE OF THE ABOVE, it has now allegedly come out that;

1. THE Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon. Anita Annet Among has allegedly  illicitly amassed a lot of wealth among which include;

• A palatial residential house at Macknnon Road, Nakasero in  Kampala Central Division
• A residential house in Minister’s village in Ntinda in Nakawa Division
• Sky Hotel International, a 3 star Hotel at Kyadondo plot 1423 Ntinda off Nalya road, Mugisha road in Nakawa Division
• A palatial up country residential house at Aereere village, Kamutur sub county in Bukedea District 
• A Toyota Land cruiser V8 motor vehicle registration number UBJ 005U
• Two Mercedes Benz motor vehicles personalized registration numbers AAA1 and AAA2 
• A Range Rover motor vehicle personalized registration number AAA3

In the premises of the ongoing “money heist” in Parliament we are of the view that the Inspectorate of Government invokes provisions of the Leadership Code Act and require the Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon. Anita Among to make a clarification of her submission of the declarations of income, assets and liabilities. This will help the Inspectorate of Government to ascertain whether the Speaker of Parliament submitted correct information that is not false, misleading or insufficient. 

We are further of the view that other anti-corruption agencies take up the responsibility of investigating the person and office of the Speaker and other leaders of Parliament for suspected financial mismanagement, abuse of office, illicit enrichment and suspected involvement in corrupt practices. This is totally in line with your original belief about illicit enrichment; Your Excellency Sir, if I may quote you. During your Presidential campaigns in 1980 while in Bushenyi you said, I quote “Using a government position to amass wealth is high treason. If the UPM is not going to be supported because it denounces such methods of getting such, let it be” 

1. THE government of Uganda (Executive arm) should think of amending the Constitution to revise Article 85 and remove the power of determining the emoluments, gratuity, pension and such other facilities of the members and staff of Parliament from Parliament and instead establish a Salaries and Remunerations Commission that among other functions would review and harmonize all the salaries and other emoluments of public officers including those of members of Parliament. I remember Your Excellency Sir that you were once quoted saying that “It is criminal for a Member of Parliament to earn shillings four millions when a primary teacher is earning shillings seventy thousand per month”. The salaries and remunerations Commission would exactly do what you believed in by then i.e. review and harmonize the salaries and such other emoluments of all the public officers so as to create fairness in awarding salaries.

1. EVEN though you Your Excellency Sir is committed to fighting and eliminating corruption and if all the allegations leveled against the Speaker of Parliament and the other top leadership of Parliament are to be true, then your obligation to promote and protect the fundamental rights of the citizens of Uganda would be under a great challenge.

Your Excellency Sir, you will agree with us that corruption has destroyed the social fabric of our society; it has undermined peoples’ trust in the NRM political system; in its institutions Parliament inclusive and in its leaders you inclusive Your Excellency. You know Sir that corruption has endangered the right to life causing lack of health services (the delay of Lubowa Hospital is blamed on corruption). Your Excellency Sir the levels of graft in this country have gone out of hand to the point that some public officers are out competing one another in the “game of shame”. Such a state of affairs has helped your government secure itself a space of honor as “the grand seat of corruption”  

Your Excellency Sir, we have been all along energized by your strong words against corruption and your zeal and commitment to fight the vice as you indicated in the NRM manifesto of 2021-2026 . You committed   to undertake real time monitoring of projects and budget spending across all MDAs, as a way of ensuring efficiency and effectiveness of government (pg. 245). Under the same manifesto, NRM promised to continue its fight against corruption by improving the supervision of government officials using both administrative and political methods including elected councils and Parliament. I quote; “We are going to defeat corruption of greed…………..” pg. 247. FURTHE Your Excellency Sir, in your speech of Friday 21st May 2021 in State House Entebbe while meeting the then newly elected independent NRM leaning members of Parliament, you promised and said that whoever is involved in corruption is going to “face my full force” You even further said that “Am told there is corruption even in Parliament, How can this be? I am going to crash corruption and whoever is involved in corruption is going to face my full force” you warned. We believe Your Excellency Sir that this is the time to whip the suspected corrupt official in Parliament by first and foremost conducting an inquiry.

BASING on the above allegations WE DO pray Your Excellency that;

1. You invoke Article 99 of the Constitution of Uganda that vests all the Executive Authority of Uganda in you as the President of Uganda and exercise these powers by causing a judicial inquiry into the alleged financial mismanagement within the institution of Parliament, inquire into the alleged abuse of office by the top leadership of Parliament and their alleged involvement in corrupt practices and illicit enrichment.
2. The Parliamentary Commissioners who received the so called “service award” should immediately refund it into the consolidation fund If it is established that this money was expended to them without any backing of the any law.
3. The inquiry should investigation the several donations made by the Speaker with a view of establishing the sources of funding and the alleged beneficiaries.
4. The inquiry should establish the ownership of the properties allegedly owned by the Speaker and also establish the source of the money that purchased these properties.
5. The inquiry should also establish how many individuals have been employed by Parliament in the last three years and further establish whether the employment of these people followed the legal procedures and processes and if the people employed qualified for the job they now occupy. 

 Your Excellency Sir, we do propose a judicial inquiry and totally negate the idea of using the Auditor General or the Inspector General of Government because these can easily be compromised since they are officers of Parliament reporting to Parliament.

In conclusion Your Excellency Sir, these allegations made on social media through #Uganda ParliamentExihibition against the person of the Speaker and other top leaders of Parliament and the institution of Parliament are so grave that should not be left to pass uninvestigated. The citizens of Uganda should know whether these allegations are true or not and the only way to reach to that conclusion Sir is through an inquiry. But Your Excellency Sir you should not be bogged down by the rigid conformity to formal rules, rules that will prevent action and decision making. Those bureaucratic practices of “hair splitting and or foot dragging” will fail you in your quest to fight corruption. As you know Your Excellency Sir that these individuals over whom we require an inquest to be done have “seen it all before”. They have learnt how to cope. Indeed they became top managers of Parliament precisely because they “learnt how to cope”. They have learnt through their tenure of service that these investigations or inquiries are “hoops” through which they must jump and as they climbed the administrative and political ladder of the parliamentary hierarchy, they learnt to become “very good jumpers”. They are now used and they can now jump perfectly through big and complex hoops, “hoops of all colors” and they can even jump through “burning hoops” without getting the least bruise.

So we pray Your Excellency that you take action

Alluta Continua

Ssimbwa John (Hon)                            Mr. Ibrahim Kamihanda Mirembe

Former NRM Member of Parliament        Former NRM flag bearer for Mayor

Makindye East                                     Kawempe Division

0751519193                                       Tel: 0772871730

ssimbwajohn@gmail.com