I Won’t Tolerate Kitu Kidogo [Extortion] in 12th Parliament

By Mulengera Reporters

Speaker Oboth-Oboth used the Tuesday opening session for MPs’ induction seminar at Speke Resort Munyonyo to signal the new legislators not to expect any financial help or cash handouts from the Speaker’s Chambers, the way it had become the norm during the days of his predecessor.

Oboth-Oboth, who characteristically speaks with composure and eloquence that befits a Speaker of a modern Parliament, creating a clear contrast with his predecessor, asserted that the money he would have used to do charity and contribute to fundraising functions in legislators’ constituencies had been forfeited when he told the clerk to parliament Adolf Mwesige to reallocate the more than Shs20bn meant to Speakers Donations away.

The cash was redirected to facilitate the work of Committees of Parliament whose chairpersons like Gilbert Olanyah say they were financially deprived a lot during the Anita Among reign. Oboth-Oboth said as he opened the Munyonyo induction seminar that he wasn’t prepared to be a Speaker who gets praised for donating big sums of money for charitable causes while leading a Parliament whose committees are crippled and can’t do any work because all the cash has been allocated to his office.

He implied that would be abominable and doing rip service to the people of Uganda who expect a legislature that works for them through doing oversight work. He said there is simply no better platform for MPs to serve their electors and demonstrate leadership than through committees. He said he knows this pretty well because he used to be a committee chair.

Oboth-Oboth said that this forfeiting of his office’s so-called CSR budget was his proposal which he hopes the soon-to-be constituted Parliamentary Commission will approve at their first meeting expected at around Tuesday 7^th July or thereabout. He said he was sacrificing in such a manner because he wants to insulate MPs from financial pressure which during his predecessor’s days compelled them to incur personal debts in order to get facilitation to do Parliamentary work.

Oboth-Oboth said when he was informed how there was no money for committees to do their work, by the Clerk to Parliament, he made it clear this was unacceptable and easily forfeited his office’s donation money. He added he is now expecting MPs to reciprocate the high standard he has set by totally avoiding extortion and solicitation what he called ‘kitu kidogo’ from MDAs heads and accounting officers who they are supposed to play oversight over. He promised to ensure adequate facilitation for Committees, implying whoever engages in extortion of kitu kidogo will be firmly dealt with as the 12^th Parliament leadership is very deliberate and no one will be tolerated engaging in corruption of whatever sort.

Oboth-Oboth, who many observers believe is a good Speaker destined to be much better than his predecessor on all indicators, also implored MPs not to bother frequenting his office seeking cash handouts because he is a poor modest man who doesn’t have such money to splash at them. He believes MPs should like him because of the high standards he is going to set to restore the public trust in Parliament, as opposed to being loved merely because he gives them money.

He made it clear no MP should expect him to contribute to say a church fundraising function in their constituencies because he doesn’t have such money. The Speaker’s chambers being synonymous with splashing colossal sums of money had become common place to the extent that, as he campaigned to become the next Speaker, Norbert Mao likened Anita Among to an ATM to which all financially-afflicted MPs frequently converged to be bailed out.

As a truly well-meaning leader, who respects and wishes well for everyone, Oboth-Oboth also assured the LOP Joel Ssenyonyi (who suffered persecution during Anita Among’s days because of his firm stand against impropriety) of dignified treatment even though they belong to different parties. He also spoke about politics of consensus, as opposed to being a Speaker who merely manipulates fellow leaders, whereby the winner at the conclusion of every debate in Parliament has to be the people of Uganda and not the LoP’s side or that of Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja in her capacity as the leader of government.

Saying having numbers alone won’t be sufficient to deliver a win for the government side, Oboth-Oboth said that whatever win any side registers at the end of a plenary session should be for and on behalf of the people of Uganda whose interest the legislature exists to serve. This demonstrates depth, sophistication and clear understanding on the side of Oboth-Oboth, which was never the case under the tenure of his predecessor.

Clearly all is going to be well the moment Oboth-Oboth, who clearly isn’t easily excitable and despises material things and unjust enrichment among the political class members, matches his words with actions. He has asked for time to roll out his reforms as opposed to being judged prematurely. Otherwise, the jury is still out there on many of the very exciting things he has consistently been promising.

Oboth-Oboth also promised to ensure that the people’s representatives are well facilitated to do their oversight work to the extent that time is coming when Parliament will do its work and catch all the thieving government officials without having to wait on the Auditor General who he said is only doing post mortem type of work as opposed to intervening on good time and catching/stopping the thieves before the wrong is committed. He said the committees of parliament will each be assigned a sector or sectors whose projects implementation they will go out and inspect in close collaboration with the Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja who is charged with government-wide coordination.

To his credit, Oboth-Oboth also promised to be very deliberate about the media representatives accredited to cover Parliament being enabled to effectively do their work. He promised unprecedented levels of transparency and accredited media personnel’s access to all the information pertaining to parliamentary work, because he doesn’t intend to have anything to hide.

He promised regular interfaces with the media representatives so that members of the 4^th estate help the leadership at Parliament to disseminate timely and accurate information. Saying media reps are supposed to be treated as partners and not enemies of the leadership at Parliament, Oboth-Oboth promised regular media breakfast sessions, through which honest and objective feedback can potentially be obtained from time to time so that the leadership improves on what they are doing for the country.

Members reflected on the fact that the fear under which journalists at Parliament operated has since ceased, as proof that the Oboth-Oboth administration means well. Some MPs reflected on the circumstances under which the NMG, whose representatives had been banned from covering Parliament simply because the leadership wasn’t comfortable with their scrutiny, were readmitted to cover the August House (to conclude that the Central Budama MP hates darkness, has nothing to hide and indeed means well). It’s expected that going forward, no journalist will be required or manipulated to spy on a fellow news reporters in the service of the Speaker’s paranoia-triggered interests.

On his part, Joel Ssenyonyi demanded that the 12^th Parliament leadership realizes the need to do much more than just exposing/stopping the corrupt as a way of increasing its relevancy to the Ugandan people. He demanded that MPs realize that, besides fighting corruption, defending human rights and calling out those who torture innocent Ugandans because of their dissenting views is part of what the legislature has to deliberately keep doing in order to restore public trust that greatly got eroded under the Anita Among-led 11^th Parliament.(For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).