OFWONO OPONDO: Money heist in parliament and Mathias Mpuuga’s fight for political life 

Uganda’s mainstream media houses with nearly 100 journalists accredited to cover Parliament all couldn’t sniff the stench from what appears to be fictitious expenses payouts until volunteer digital warriors exposed it in the ongoing #UgandaParliamentExhibition.

Out of embarrassment they’re now diverting debate to the little fight of Robert Kyagulanyi a.k.a. Bobi Wine and Mathias Mpuuga. Meanwhile MPs across the aisle are as silent as a tombstone fearing to rock a vicious top to which many of them have become surrogates.

Many journalists attached to parliament are beneficiaries of soft money handouts and no longer capable of smelling real journalism there. Going by the revelations so far published against some top dogs at parliament, although yet unverified, it appears there is a cabal run amok with financial bonanza.

It takes a genius to be in two different places at the same time, and perhaps there is a false belief some people shouldn’t be accountable. It’s sad all this is happening under a Clerk to Parliament Adolf Mwesige, a senior lawyer, former deputy attorney general, minister of local government, and defence whose head should be on is the chopping board.

When you inherit a pack of hounds, never have high expectations they will suddenly change their hunting habits especially if they have lived in the grasslands longer than yourself. The National Unity Platform (NUP) Principal is noisily blowing trumpet that he has caught Mpuuga in the nooks dragging away a 500 million in backhand payment dubbed ‘Service Award” given in May 2022 before he had completed one year, and two NUP MPs were in prison. The pay was hidden from public knowledge and Mpuuga should disclose what he delivered in return.

Details now show that serving Parliament Commissioners hot the backhand picked from the Parliamentary SACCO to be repaid with interest. The Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, and Government Chief Whip who represent the Executive on the Commission may have to explain what they know.

Kyagulanyi shouldn’t go around making noise if that is what he is used to in the ghetto because some may see you as an incompetent nuisance unable to handle mundane affairs internally. When Mpuuga and other hounds in DP destroyed their marriage to Norbert Mao, and joined NUP to enter parliament, they first paralysed him beyond repair, and many laughed. To survive, Kyagulanyi may have to kick them out soonest. Kyagulanyi needs to learn NRM’s lesson with its ‘rebel’ MPs initially kept in parliament by a scheming Speaker, and Courts of law, and who have won every reelection since then.

Mpuuga and the Suubi pack formed in 2011 are old and experienced sectarian-chauvinist trench war fighters who refused to leave DP voluntarily until 2020 when Mao was completely down. In retrospect, many now know that Mao’s capitulation at Hajji Kassim’s feet was on realizing that very little was left to gain. Kyagulanyi is deluded to think that having barked, Mpuuga’s time under the warm sunshine is in jeopardy. But you already have clever lawyers and opposition politicians justifying how perfectly legal Mpuuga’s ‘service award’ is which only riff-raffs aren’t able to see. This legalese will help keep Mpuuga in the Council House until 2026.

Many are mocking Kyagulanyi for goading a fight unaware how long it could run. As the big hound, Mpuuga is mobilizing other hounds and foxes even if just to yell irritatingly at the big dog telling him to drop his fat catch. Those who grew up among hunters in the countryside know how dangerous it is to force your own hound to drop a game between its teeth unless you offer it something in return. You have noticed loud-mouthed opposition foxes running to every hilltop with megaphones in Mpuuga’s defence.

The writer, Ofwono Opondo is the Executive Director at the Uganda Media Centre.