Reports have been making the rounds of how members of the 11th parliament are signing for Shs40 million each as a token of appreciation for allegedly passing a series of bills and approving the Shs193 billion supplementary budget.
The developments indicated that even opposition MPs had signed up for the money, which is considered to be a bribe from the government. This has caused an outrage amongst the public, with many criticizing the opposition MPs for always siding with the ruling government whenever their financial benefits are at stake.
It’s after such reports that the main opposition party in parliament, the National Unity Platform Party, led by Robert Kyagulanyi, decided to call for an emergency meeting at their headquarters in Kamwokya on Monday.
“We established that a few NUP MPs had unfortunately picked this money, since everyone else was picking it,” reads the statement in part.
A statement issued by the party this evening, confirms that some of its MPs have signed up for the money at the home of Speaker Anita Among.
It adds, “NUP condemns this open day of corruption in the strongest terms possible. How can public funds be handled in this manner? A quick summation of these funds shows that the regime is spending over 20 billion shillings on this illegal, immoral, and corrupt venture. “
The party states that they ordered their MPs to return the money.
“NUP MPs who had picked up the money have been ordered to return it immediately because it was clearly a bribe,” reads the statement.
Reports indicate that out of the 57 NUP MPs, 40 had already picked the money.