Parliament adopted a report by the rules committee pardoning Bukoto South Member of Parliament, Twaha Kagabo regarding his 40 million Shillings bribery allegations against the Speaker.
The report comes a few weeks after MP Kagabo took to the floor of parliament and apologized to fellow legislators for “causing an impasse” in regard to the 40 million Shillings that he recently attempted to return to Parliament.
Kagabo’s move followed a directive made on 9th August 2022 by Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among for the House Rules, Privileges, and Discipline Committee to probe him regarding claims that she gave him 40 million Shillings. Among said that she didn’t know Kagabo’s intention and described his action as an abuse of the institution of Parliament.
The Speaker’s directive came after Kagabo addressed the Shadow Cabinet led by the Leader of Opposition, Mathias Mpuuga, seeking to return the money that had been highly criticized by the public and his party, the National Unity Platform – NUP.
“Some time ago, I received money to a tune of 40 million on my account, and shortly after that I was also invited to pick money…40 million which money, I was told was an arrangement internally from Parliament, and I received this money,” Kagabo told members of the Shadow Cabinet then.
Kagabo said that he had taken a long time to return the money after soul searching and getting feedback from his Constituency. Kagabo then told Mpuuga that he had picked the money from the Speaker’s residence and the Leader of Opposition asked him to return it. Before he could return the money, Kagabo was arrested by the Inspectorate of Government- IG on bribery allegations and later released on IG bond.
The Inspectorate then said it would prefer charges against the legislator once their investigations are completed. Now, in the rules committee report presented by the Vice Chairperson Fr. Charles Onen, MPs confirmed that Kagabo was in breach of the code of a member of Parliament since he falsely accused the Speaker as per his testimony to the committee.
Onen told parliament that Kagabo told his committee that his false accusation against Speaker Among was due to political pressure and that in a bid to clear his name, he decided to arrange money which he paraded before the media. The Rules committee report states that Kagabo had regretted his actions and sought pardon from the House.
The Rules committee also recommended that Parliament continuously orients members on the rules of procedure with emphasis on conduct. Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Thomas Tayebwa did not allow any debate on the report and the House thereafter adopted it. In his response to the report, MP Kagabo applauded the committee and the Speaker of Parliament, Among for pardoning him.
Deputy Speaker, Tayebwa appealed to MPs to constantly guard against misconduct and take MP Kagabo’s case as a learning example.
However, acting Leader of Opposition Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi said that the National Unity Platform (NUP), to which Kagabo belongs, has standards for its members and that matter would be further picked up by his party and subject to the disciplinary procedure.
But Abdu Katuntu, the rules committee chairperson raised a procedural matter saying that rule 175 (3) of the Parliament rules of procedure prohibits any response to findings and recommendations to Parliament in a case where the affected parties have agreed.
He proposed that the response by the acting LOP is expunged from the Hansard since it cannot hold in the rules. Katuntu said that any actions taken by the party should not be part of the report.
Deputy Speaker Tayebwa hoped that no one opens wounds and that there will be no retribution on the member.
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