‘I loaned money to 250 MPs’: Tayebwa slams poor saving habits of Ugandan legislators

Deputy Speaker of Parliament Thomas Tayebwa has revealed that he once ran a lucrative money-lending business that saw nearly 60 per cent of MPs and Cabinet ministers borrow money from him.

Tayebwa made the revelation on Friday, October 23, 2026, during an inter-religious thanksgiving service for the 12th Parliament, where he criticised the poor saving and investment habits of Ugandan legislators.

He said his money-lending business flourished during his first term in the 10th Parliament, when he had substantial earnings from his earlier business ventures in South Sudan.

“In the 10th Parliament I was a money lender. I had a lot of money. Nearly 60% of Parliament and cabinet owed me money. I was a big money lender doing well. I had just come from South Sudan. Money was flowing,” Tayebwa said.

The 10th Parliament, which served from 2016 to 2021, had more than 420 legislators.

The Deputy Speaker, who entered Parliament in 2016 as the Ruhinda North MP, had previously engaged in business in South Sudan, including cross-border trade.

He used his financial success to illustrate the opportunities available to legislators who invest their earnings instead of depending entirely on parliamentary salaries and allowances.

He noted that most MPs misuse their earnings from parliament often starting unsuccessful businesses instead of joining bigger joint ventures 

He gave an example of some MPs who never made it back to the 12th Parliament and are already broke.

“I have colleagues who just left parliament the other day but they are already lining up in our offices because they are in trouble. They have no school fees or money for medicine.”

He urged legislators to develop business interests and establish alternative income sources before leaving Parliament.

“You must learn to smell money especially if you are an MP, earning what we earn,” he said.

Tayebwa also narrated how he unsuccessfully attempted to convince nine fellow MPs to join him in a Shs10 billion property investment during the 11th Parliament.

Under the proposal, each legislator would contribute Shs1 billion towards establishing a company that would acquire land and develop residential apartments.

He said he had identified an acre of land in Naguru, Kampala, which a friend was willing to sell for $800,000, approximately Shs2.5 billion at the time.

His plan was to use the remaining Shs7.5 billion to construct 30 apartments on the property.

The investors would then sell 20 apartments to recover their investment while retaining one apartment each, valued at about Shs1 billion.

The proceeds from selling the apartments would finance another development on a separate acre of land.

He believed the group could repeat the investment cycle three times within a single five-year parliamentary term.

However, the proposal collapsed after most of the MPs declined to participate.

Tayebwa said only about three legislators expressed willingness to contribute, leaving the group without enough capital to proceed.

He attributed the failure to a culture in which Ugandans prefer owning businesses individually rather than pooling resources for larger investments.

“It did not want to work out because people like to do things by themselves, own 100% of their companies,” he said.

“If you go to Kenya, every matatu, all the skyscrapers are owned by groups not by individuals. The problem we have is that we want to do it all alone.”