Breaking!! President Museveni Breaks Silence On Sacking Parliamentary Commissioners Over Service Award
Today Uganda, like other East African states, presented its National Budget for the financial year 2024/25.
Minister of Finance Matia Kasaija delivered the budget speech, outlining Uganda’s spending plan of Shs72 trillion, with Shs32 trillion allocated for debt repayment.
The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) is expected to collect Shs32.3 trillion, despite consistently missing targets, including Shs29 trillion in 2023/24.In comparison, Kenya’s budget is USD31 billion, Tanzania’s is USD18.9 billion, and Rwanda’s is USD1.9 billion.
Uganda’s budget prioritizes wealth creation through industrialization, commercial agriculture, ICT, and services.
President Museveni emphasized wealth creation and renewed his stance against corruption, urging the judiciary to handle cases expeditiously.
However, Museveni’s statement on corruption was seen as a hint at the ongoing issue with parliamentary commissioners, whom some MPs accuse of sharing Shs1.7 billion amongst themselves.
The censure motion faces challenges, and experts believe it could spark a debate on corruption in parliament, where three legislators are currently remanded in prison for soliciting a bribe from the Uganda Human Rights Commission.
Museveni’s statement on corruption may influence the decision of NRM legislators on whether to sign the censure motion or not.
“Corruption is very dangerous, don’t involve me in your struggles with the Commissioners, that is another matter, but it is corruption,” Museveni said.
Experts however believe that could the Censure motion make it to parliament, it will be a spark on the debate about corruption in parliament where even three legislators Cissy Namujju [Lwengo District], Yusuf Mutembuli [Bunyole East] and Paul Akamba [Busiki county] are remanded at Luzira prisons until tomorrow 14th June when they will appear for their bail hearing.
The three are accused of soliciting a 20% from the enhanced budget of the Uganda Human Rights Commission via the commission chairperson Marian Wangadya at a meeting they held at Hotel African in early May.