Speaker Anita Among has disclosed that Paul Akamba, the Member of Parliament for Busiki County, who was recently abducted from the premises of the High Court after securing bail, is currently being held at the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) headquarters.
Akamba is reportedly answering to new charges related to a different crime.
Speaker Among emphasized her agreement with the police to ensure proper procedures are followed when summoning MPs. She stated that she insisted on receiving summons for MPs directly, rather than allowing the police to apprehend them without due process.
“One thing I insisted to the police is that if you want to arrest my members, give the summons to me,” Among said.
“Because originally, they would pick people anyhow. I said, give me the summons. And as you bring the summons, it shouldn’t be on hearsay or based on a list of 30 or so names. Tell me exactly why you want this person. I have the summons and as I speak now, Akamba is at the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) headquarters answering charges on allegations of another case.”she said during plenary on Wednesday
The specifics of the new charges against Akamba have not been disclosed, but his detention follows a pattern of contentious interactions between Prliament and police.
A dramatic scuffle ensued on Friday, June 14, 2024, when Akamba was rearrested at the Anti-Corruption Court shortly after securing bail on corruption charges.
Akamba had been granted bail by Chief Magistrate Joan Aciro, who set a cash bail of 13 million shillings and required him to deposit his passport with the court. Despite fulfilling these conditions, Akamba was seized by plainclothes armed personnel as he exited the court premises, accompanied by supporters who loudly protested his rearrest.
The confrontation saw individuals kicked and beaten as they tried to prevent the MP’s capture. During the chaos, pistols fell onto the road as armed personnel forcibly took Akamba away in a Noah vehicle, closely followed by another vehicle marked with the Joint Anti-Terrorism Taskforce (JATT) logo.
Akamba, along with Cissy Namujju, the Lwengo District Woman MP, and Yusuf Mutembuli, faces charges of soliciting an undue advantage of 20% of the anticipated budget for the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) for the financial year 2024/2025.
The prosecution alleges that the MPs sought this advantage from Mariam Wangadya, the Chairperson of UHRC, on May 13, 2024, at Hotel Africana in Kampala, claiming they could influence the Parliament’s Budget Committee to increase the UHRC budget in return for a kickback.
While Akamba was granted bail, Namujju and Mutembuli were denied release due to insufficient sureties.All three MPs have been commited to the High court for trial.
The allegations stem from President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s State of the Nation Address, where he asserted he had substantial evidence of corruption involving public officials.
Museveni accused the MPs of colluding with accounting officers, the Ministry of Finance, and the Bank of Uganda to allocate public funds in exchange for bribes.
He pledged to take firm action against corruption and hinted at the possibility of amnesty for those implicated, but many legislators interrupted his speech to prevent him from publicly naming them.
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