By Ishaa Otto Amiza
While campaigns for Speakership heat up, Hon. Norbert Mao has taken on the current Speaker, Rt. Hon. Among over corruption in Parliament. Norbert Mao describes Parliament as the,” HEADQUARTERS OF CORRUPTION”.
However, Hon. Norbert Mao forgets that CORRUPTION in Uganda is syndicated.
Hon. Mao ignores numerous scandals of corruption and open bribes given to members of Parliament for passing legislations to the extent that the recent NRM Kyankwanzi retreat attracted a token of 100m to each incoming Member of Parliament from President himself and yet Hon. Mao is a beneficiary without questioning the source and motive, besides his continued allegations of bribery of incoming MPs by Rt. Among.
Mao knows that Uganda is the 140th most corrupt of the 180 countries of the world and the Inspectorate of Government indicates that corruption takes away 10 trillion shillings annually from the overall national budget.
The alleged corruption in Parliament therefore cannot be discussed in isolation with that of the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and the Attorney General.
The Ministry of Finance has been releasing MONEY for the last five years to the Ministry of Justice for compensation of animals and properties of Lango, Acholi and Teso and yet the monies are stolen and shared dubiously before reaching the very claimants under the watch of Ladit Mao.
Last FY 2025/26, Government released 150 billion for compensation of war claimants and yet no genuine claimant received their money. Instead the line Ministry and Attorney General advised the President and Government to abandon the legally awarded compensation in favour of the nonstarter restocking.
This act was not just a betrayal of our people of the north but a total abuse of the decision of courts of law that cannot be forgiven by the war claimants who lost their animals, took government to court, won the awards and only to be denied their legal rights at the watch of their very own and yet whether NRM government wants it or not the subsequent legitimate government will still pay the compensation awards.
Whereas there are several reports of corruption and diversion of court awards, public attention has not been raised for scrutiny.
Nonetheless, in 2005, the Ministry of Finance released money through Ministry of Justice and paid 1.7bn to a bus company from West Nile and the file was closed and yet under the watch of the current Minister with the aid of the Attorney General’s office the said bus company was allegedly repaid again the same amount, doubling the pay to a tune of 3.4bn from money diverted from Cattle Compensation of war claimants.
Another bus company for Samuel Black is being paid using the same compensation money for animals and properties of northern Uganda.
One therefore questions how the flamboyant Minister who now accuses her opponent for the Speakership race will fight corruption in Parliament when he becomes the Speaker when the money meant for compensation of the very own (home) people of northern Uganda continues to be swindled at his very watch.
As a matter of urgency and concern, it’s prudent that we publicly table the numerous scandals in the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and Attorney General to evaluate similar occurrences in Parliament so that the public can scrutinize their leaders for the purpose of ACCOUNTABILITY before the contested position is occupied by one of the two officers who are contesting for such an important office of the Speaker which has become a subject of citizens concerns.
Conclusively, under Equity, “He who comes to Equity Must Come with Clean Hands.”
I hope we apply this rule squarely for the best to come for Speakership. Corruption in Uganda should not be used for blackmail or for character assassination of political opponents but rather to correct the impasse. For God and My Country. The author, Hon Ishaa Otto Amiza, is a Political Activist & a former MP Oyam South. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
