By Mulengera Reporters
At UPC’s Wednesday weekly press conference, Party President Jimmy Akena responded to President Museveni’s Tuesday speech at Kyankwanzi where he addressed the new MPs and demonstrated his resentment towards MPs who commit corruption acts including extorting money from MDA heads and accounting officers who appear before them seeking approval of their entities’ budgets.
Museveni assured the new MPs that he has his way of getting to know such things and implored them to learn from the jail experience that happened to Cissy Namujju, Paul Akamba, Yusuf Mutembule and other actors of the 11th Parliament who burnt their fingers and ended up doing jail terms in Luzira.
After sounding that warning, Gen Museveni spoilt it all in the same speech when he announced a cash handout of Shs100m for each of the NRM MPs and independents affiliated to the ruling party. Many critics have since been riding on this to assert that Museveni can never decisively fight and end corruption in Uganda because his actions don’t match his words.
At the Wednesday news conference, Jimmy Akena said that Museveni had clearly contradicted himself by giving strange and free money to MPs yet this is similar to the very actions he had condemned earlier on in the same speech.
Akena advised Ugandans not to expect much from the 12th Parliament (regardless of who becomes Speaker) because there is no much good that is going to ever emerge from there for as long as Museveni, exhausted after serving for 40 years, remains President of Uganda. He challenged Museveni to end corruption in State House first before pointing fingers at Parliament.
Akena said that since charity begins at home, Gen Museveni must be concerned about cleaning the State House’s image and the general perception the general public has towards that place.
“Between 1979 and December 1980, then a much younger Museveni agreed with those who called State House a clearing house, yet under him it has even gotten worse. Today the place has become synonymous with so much corruption to the extent that even when you go to visit State House, the first thing people expect is that you have been bribed and you are returning with a lot of money. They begin demanding for their share,” Akena controversially asserted.
In the same address, Akena belittled Museveni as a President saying he lacks ideas to effectively transform Uganda. He added that even after trying to copy and plagiarize UPC ideas, Gen Museveni remained a “policy gambler” for many years to the extent that at some point he even tried barter trade as a way of getting Uganda trade with the rest of the world.
Akena also said there is a lot of dictatorship in Uganda which is why the NRM blocked his 2026 bid for Presidency and the IPOD arrangement has since been crippled because Gen Museveni knows that a perfect IPOD arrangement will lead to a vibrant opposition in the country, which he doesn’t like because it can diminish his NRM politics.
He said he now realizes and agrees with the likes of Dr. Kizza Besigye who saw long time ago that Gen Museveni has never been genuine and has therefore never acted in good faith. Akena also castigated DP President Norbert Mao for failing to use his period as Summit Chairman to revitalize and strengthen IPOD. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
