Negw’oyagala omusalira omusango negumusinga n’omuliyira envuma. That one is a Luganda proverb that demonstrates how strict the dictates of justice are. Justice obliges us to pronounce guilty, a person so dear to us and only save them from jail by paying their requisite fine fee.
Buganda Kingdom Premier, Charles Peter Mayiga is a well learned and exposed lawyer who is assumed therefore, to be the vanguard of justice itself. Whoever has heard him speak the language, knows how well versed he is with his indigenous Luganda mother tongue, including the proverbs associated with it and he is accordingly, expected to be well versed with the above-mentioned proverb coined by his justice-minded forefathers.
Furthermore, Owek Mayiga earned praises when he credibly introduced the policy of obwerufu (transparency) in Mengo administration upon his swearing in over a decade ago.
The above-mentioned policy emphasizes strict financial discipline, zero tolerance to corruption in the performance of work and rendering of services to the public by the Buganda kingdom officials.
But in what looks like a sharp departure from his own policy, Owek Mayiga has since defended Hon Mathias Mpuuga against accusations that seem to boarder on financial impropriety. The said accusations stem from the controversial service awards payments worth over two billion Uganda shilling that Hon Mpuuga, Rt Hon Anita Among and others secretly approved, processed and `secretly` paid to themselves.
Mayiga’s defense of Mpuuga is controversial especially since he famously vowed in the past that he would twist and break the arm of any official in the Buganda government, who would get arrested for merely stealing a pen! And yet, Mpuuga shared up to five hundred million shilling out of the above-mentioned controversial service award payments.
Be that as it may, Mpuuga is expected to continue to live in denial especially since he is a politician and, moreover, politics is presumed a dirty game. Mpuuga’s denials is a matter between him and his own conscience and judgment as a leader, role model, married man, father and, a practicing Roman Catholic member.
In any case, hasn’t Mpuuga told us that he is entitled to retirement benefits as the former leader of the opposition since the Prime Minister, and the Vice President of Uganda are also entitled to the same perks? And yet, merely because Mpuuga feels so strongly that he must defend the indefensible in order to save face, he also seems to think that he must do so irrespective of how dishonorably! Imagine.
Yet contrary to his false representations, the retirement benefits for the Vice President and Prime Minister are provided for under the Ugandan law. Mpuuga uses the two government officials to try to justify the unjustifiable service award payments he, and Rt Hon Anita Among secretly processed and paid to themselves. But what he conveniently omits to disclose to Ugandans, is that the Vice President and the Prime Minister are not the ones that appropriated their retirement benefits for themselves and yet which he did.
For the record, Parliament and, of which Mpuuga and Among are some of the members who constitute it, is the one that appropriated the retirement benefits for the Vice President and the Prime Minister. That was after the central government had duly tabled before parliament, the requisite Bill and after the lawmakers had held debate over the perks and also enacted such a Bill into the requisite law.
Now, and, if I may, when was a Bill tabled, debated and enacted into law that grants the service awards that Rt Hon Among, Mpuuga and others paid to themselves? Frankly speaking, there was no such kind of a Bill in the first place and correspondingly, no parliamentary debate to ratify it.
That is precisely why Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, the Principal of National Unity Party (NUP), relied on the Leadership Code, the dictates of good morals, to emphasize the illegality of the act of any politician setting their financial package and paying that package to themselves, and yet, which Mpuuga, Among and others did.
It is interesting to note that Mpuuga is a lawyer and well-informed person and therefore, expected to know better than to mix up salt and sugar by confusing what they paid to themselves with what is being paid to the retired Vice Presidents and retired Prime Ministers.
By and large, Owek Katikkiro Mayiga is by reason of being a lawyer, justice-minded person and, above all, the initiator of the obwerufu policy in Buganda kingdom, not expected to defend people mired in financial controversies. Or so, we strongly opine.
Author Profile
- Mr. Stephen Kasozi Muwambi is a seasoned crime investigative writer, majoring in judicial-based stories. His two decades’ experience as a senior investigative journalist has made him one of the best to reckon on in Uganda. He can also be reached via [email protected]
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