By Mulengera Reporters
President Museveni might end up regretting why he publicly made his offer of Shs100m to each of his NRM party MPs and the aligned independents.
This was part of his communication to the new legislators for the 12th Parliament as the Kyankwanzi ruling party induction retreat came to an end. He declared this windfall was meant to enable MPs solve some of their immediate financial problems as they prepare for swearing and inauguration next month.
The President’s staff were directed to ensure that each MP leaves Kyankwanzi with Shs20m and go home to wait for the balance of Shs80m.
In total, the offer will cost Gen Museveni, the generous giver of all times, roughly Shs36bn. And to him, this is peanuts.
As many, including UPC President Jimmy Akena, questioned the source, Gen Museveni’s other cadres outside the parliamentary group have had their appetite aroused. They too are already using media platforms to mount pressure demanding that the big man from Rwakitura remembers them too.
Reliable sources indicate that Ministers, especially those who lost their MP seats in 2026 polls, are also planning to ambush Museveni for their share. These weren’t part of the team at Kyankwanzi because failure to secure re-election makes them ineligible to attend such a retreat.
They are already lobbying Ministers like Persis Namuganza and Balaam Barugahara, who are renowned for not fearing Mzee and for being shameless when it comes to making such trivial demands at Cabinet sessions, to do the needful.
They want Balaam or Namuganza to use the next Monday Cabinet session (which will be the 2nd last for current Cabinet) to have their wish tabled and there are high chances that Gen Museveni, for whom money has bever been a problem, will grant the request and get them something too.
“If he can give MPs who have just fallen into things, how about us who have served him loyally and are headed into a very uncertain future?” sources close to Balaam quoted some of the Ministers as asserting their right to be given something too.
In a related development, two LC5 Chairpersons one of Kayunga Andrew Muwonge and the other for Kasanda Fred Kasirye Zimula have demanded that Gen Museveni begins acting fairly and in a more inclusive way by considering local government leaders too, instead of always pampering only MPs.
“We are his supporters too and we are entitled to being pampered even more because we earn very little unlike MPs and yet we are the frontline officers when it comes to service delivery. We are the ones driving Mzee’s agenda because our work is community-based, unlike MPs who are always away in Kampala and don’t face as much pressure like we do,” said Kayunga district Chairman Muwonge during a CBS radio media interview.
He called upon the President to be considerate and give something to LC5 Chairpersons too because they earn as little as Shs1.5m per month which is not even pocket change for the MPs. The two district chairpersons, who are not known for being very hostile to President Museveni, called on him to consider putting such money to better use in future.
That the President must also reflect on the message such gestures send to the ordinary man on the street and also the extent to which such acts contradict his own personal condemnation of corruption tendencies and the monetization of politics in Uganda.
The duo also asserted that the Shs36bn that the big man has splashed on the MPs, who are already going to get more than Shs300m for new vehicles, should have been better utilized by being invested in capacitating and strengthening local governments to serve ordinary Ugandans better-for example by way of buying more ambulances for public hospitals across the country.
