Although religious leaders of all denominations in the country and majority of political leaders are on record condemning the widespread corruption and abuse of public offices and calling for an end of the vice, the on-going saga between the main opposition party, NUP, and its maverick Member of Parliament for Nyendo-Mukungwe and Commissioner of Parliament, Mathias Mpuuga over the so called ‘Service Award of shs. 500m, has put them at crossroads and instead turned dump or dodging the real issue.
Nearly all religious leaders and a number of political leaders have dodged accepting that the so called ‘Service Award of shs. 500m’ Mpuuga pocketed was an act of corruption and abuse of public office. Instead they are calling for reconciliation, solving the inhouse, attacking NUP and its leaders of being political amateurs, vagabonds, supporters of LGBTQI etc. As expected, even political failures have jumped on the band wagon to use the platform to attack NUP and its leaders and advance their ideas forgetting that those same ideas were unpopular and denied them positions of leadership.
The Luganda saying that if a friend/relative commits a crime, you condemn him and help him do the sentence (Nowuwo bwaza omusango omusalira negumusinga, nomuyamba okukola ekibonerezo). So what was expected of our religious leaders and others determined to fight corruption, is to confide in Mpuuga that he did bad to take a bribe which was against his party’s values and accept the punishment and help him on the way forward.
Yes there’s another school of thought that why’s is Mpuuga to be the pioneer of fighting abuse of office and at a small figure of shs. 500m yet there others who are symphoning billions of shillings and go scotch free. Yes everything has a start and as the Luganda saying that if one is caught it doesn’t matter how many had done the same before (Gwebakwatira mu kituli yaaba omubbi). Uganda is a ruined country, if one doesn’t demand for a bribe to do the work he is employed to do, he will be termed a fool and if one is engaged is corruption, you will find majority supporting him!!!!
The practice of shielding our friends, relatives, children, clansmen etc when they commit crime or go against the established norms, will continue to escalate corruption, rob the country of it’s resources by a few individuals, deny the majority of citizens of the necessary services, keep citizens in poverty etc.
By condemning NUP and its leaders on the decision they took to punish its member Mpuuga for going against the party’s core values, they are in fact instead promoting it for sticking on its core values and pioneering the way to fight corruption and abuse of public office.
