By Ebi Kesiena
Three Ugandan MPs have been remanded to Luzira prison by the Anti-Corruption Court for allegedly soliciting bribes from the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) in exchange for increasing its budget.
The MPs, Yusuf Mutembuli (Bunyole East), Paul Akamba (Busiki), and Cissy Namujju Dionizia (Lwengo Woman)—were accused of demanding 20% of the UHRC’s anticipated budget for the 2024/2025 financial year from UHRC chairperson Mariam Wangadya. This occurred on May 13, 2024, at Hotel Africana in Kampala.
After two days in police custody, they were arraigned in a fully-packed courtroom on Wednesday presided over by chief magistrate Joan Aciro and charged with one count of corruption but denied the charges, and applied for bail. The prosecution, led by Nicholas Kawooya, requested more time to verify the sureties’ documents and other evidence.
The lawyers for the accused persons told court that the offences were not grave in nature and that even if they were convicted, court can only jail them for just ten years or they would be ordered to refund the money.
On their part, the prosecution asked the court for more time to verify the documents presented by the sureties like identification cards and LC one letters from the chairpersons.
The accused persons will return to court on Friday for a ruling on their bail application. The magistrate said it was too late for her to write her decision.
Trouble for the accused persons started last week after President Yoweri Museveni presented the State of the Nation Address where he disclosed that he has overwhelming evidence of the corrupt public officials.
Museveni said MPs allegedly collude with accounting officers in the ministry of Finance and Bank of Uganda to make allocations of public resources in exchange for kickbacks (bribes) and promised to crush them. Museveni revealed that the facts before him confirmed long-standing rumours he had of corruption at the heart of government, especially during the annual appropriation of taxpayers’ money.
He floated an idea of possible amnesty to the corrupt MPS but majority of the legislators interrupted his speech in disagreement.
