The Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa has asked MPs not to hide from attending the reading of the 2024/25 budget, due to fear of arrest, saying Parliament will stand by the three MPs arrested over corruption until they are pronounced guilty, and this decision shouldn’t be viewed as Parliament condoning corruption.
He made the remarks while officiating the handover ceremony of the new leadership of the Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Youth Affairs (UPFYA) at Parliament, where he assured MPs that President Museveni is happy about the performance of the 11th Parliament, and that reports about rackets of corruption have been swirling around since the 9th and 10th Parliament and urged all MPs to support the cleansing exercise.
“You are doing well. I don’t want you to lose confidence. There is a narrative being pushed that you won’t even attend the budget reading, that you are scared. I have seen the things you have done. I want to implore you, none of you should be scared, unless you are involved in wrong things. Of course we always stand by our colleagues, but standing by our colleagues doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be held accountable,” he said.
He added that as a leadership of Parliament, they shall stand by colleagues until they are proved guilty.
The Deputy Speaker also disagreed with assertion by the Ministry of Finance that MPs have been involved in tampering with the budget, which borders to corruption, saying all the reallocations that the 11th parliament has been making were within the 1% range, and these are intended to improve service delivery for Ugandans, thus can’t be categorized as corruption.
“At the reallocations in the budget with these things going on, you will find that we have tremendously reduced on how much money Parliament reallocates during appropriations. We don’t exceed 1% of the national budget and most of it is reallocated because MPs want schools, health centers, tractors in their areas, to me, that isn’t corruption. But the problem if you are making an omelet of 1000 eggs and you have one spoiled egg the whole omelet will be late,” he said.
He noted that the President is very happy with the performance of Parliament but, there have been very many rumours but there have been very many rumours that circulated and he told them, it was from the previous Parliaments but now he is narrowing down.
“We must support efforts aimed at cleaning our institution and the only way we can support our efforts is by checking our behavior, behaving in a more transparent manner, avoiding small things,” he added
In her remarks, Phionah Nyamutoro, Minister of State for Mineral Development while handing over leadership, reflected at the tough time the Forum faced when funders withdrew funds following the passing of the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023, and thanks all MPs for standing by the Forum at such a tricky time.
She also urged the new leadership for the Youth Forum to champion cause of sexual reproductive health and rights amongst youths saying the many bad decisions made about sex and reproduction has cost several youths their lives.
“The past leadership started on a note of very strong challenges when at the time, Parliament wasn’t a very stronger partner of everyone because of the Anti-Homosexuality Act. Fortunately or unfortunately, majority of our partners outside the Government avenue withdrew their support so we had very many challenges with regards of rallying and mobilizing resources to ensure that the activities of the Forum aren’t stalled. But I want to thank members that even on events where we barely had resources, to ensure that as MPs are comfortable, they showed up relentlessly,” said Nyamutoro
