Mpuuga, Commissioners in another Shs 400m Bonanza scandal 

A fresh wave of controversy has engulfed the Parliament of Uganda after the Leader of Opposition (LOP), Joel Ssenyonyi, publicly alleged that four Parliamentary Commissioners had received a second, irregular payment of Shs 400 million each. 

Speaking to the press today, Mr Ssenyonyi claimed he had been "reliably informed" that the money was recently disbursed to the four backbench commissioners: Prossy Mbabazi Akampurira, Solomon Silwanyi, Esther Afoyochan, and Mathias Mpuuga.

According to the LOP, the alleged funds were intended to support the recipients through their upcoming election campaigns. 

To bypass standard financial scrutiny and avoid a clear paper trail, Ssenyonyi claimed the money was received via the Parliamentary SACCO. 

Ssenyonyi further refuted reports circulating that he, too, had received a service award, calling it a deliberate cover-up for this "second service award." 

“These people through their agents have been, though their agents spreading propaganda that I also received the service award. This is false and is meant to be a cover up for the second service award that the commissioners gave themselves,” he said.

“Even if they sent that money to my account, I will direct my bank to return it to the sender, because such under-the-table money is illegal and irregular.”

Parliament, however, through its spokesperson, Chris Obore, immediately denied the accusations. 

Obore told reporters that "We have not paid any money out to any commissioners." 

He instead turned the focus onto the accuser, suggesting that the LOP "likes the limelight so much," and should focus on "building the institution."

The spokesperson noted that the disbursement of funds is handled by the Clerk to Parliament, whom he described as competent and fully aware of the legal requirements, stating: "He cannot pay public money, the way Hon Ssenyonyi says."

Obore further stressed that Parliament operates on a non-partisan basis, drawing leadership from across the political spectrum, which explains why the LOP himself sits on the commission. 

He went on to demand that Mr Ssenyonyi start by providing accountability for the Shs 2.8 billion allocated to his own office, before making public demands for transparency from the institution. 

This latest claim of a controversial payment resurrects the highly publicised scandal involving an initial set of "service awards," which became the defining financial controversy of the current parliamentary term. 

In that earlier incident, which came to light under the viral #UgandaParliamentExhibition, it was revealed that Mathias Mpuuga, then the Leader of Opposition, received a staggering Shs 500 million as a 'service award', while his three colleagues—Akampurira, Silwanyi, and Afoyochan—received Shs 400 million each.

The initial payment caused a political earthquake, resulting in the National Unity Platform (NUP) party demanding Mr Mpuuga's resignation from the Parliamentary Commission, citing a breach of the party's core values of integrity and anti-corruption. 

Although a High Court ruling later deemed the payments to have been part of the national budget, the moral and political fallout proved irreversible, leading to Mpuuga's eventual suspension from his Deputy Presidency position within the NUP and a fracture in the opposition's front.