Mbabazi denies corruption allegations in Uganda

By

Gloria Nakiyimba

Uganda’s independent Presidential candidate John Patrick Amama Mbabazi has denied responsibility for the loss of funds meant for the rehabilitation of northern Uganda.

The former Prime Minister and Go Forward candidate told media in the northern town of Gulu on Wednesday that he did not divert money meant to develop northern Uganda into buying a state of the art vehicle when he became Prime Minister.

Mbabazi, new challenger in the race to the incumbent Yoweri Museveni, has been dogged by allegations that he used 600 million shillings from the Peace, Recovery, and Development Plan, PRDP for northern Uganda to buy a Mercedes Benz.

The resources in question were meant to ensure economic development among communities in the north after suffering the LRA war that lasted more than two decades under rebel commander Joseph Kony.

“I oppose corruption and I certainly hate stealing” he said.

Mbabazi blames one of the northern Uganda opposition politicians Samuel Odonga Otto,  a strong supporter of opposition FDC candidate Dr. Kizza Besigye, of spreading lies about him regarding the purchase of the vehicle.

“The campaigns are about selling our ideas to the people and everyone must have a chance to do that freely. I have said before that we need to mature to a politics of tolerance in Uganda” he said.

JPAM, as he has populalry become to be known, noted that the Prime Minister is not responsible for funds. And that the constitution is very clear on intervention of the use of funds for unplanned activities, and that the PM has to put it in writing.

According to candidate Mbabazi, the Benz was purchased in the ordinary way government purchases are done. “There was nothing in the Attorney General’s report that it was a decision I personally made” he told the media.

Mbabazi promises to restore cooperative movements that will help communities to market their commodities. 

He said that since agriculture is the backbone of Uganda’s economy, it is important to revive the cooperatives to provide storage, process and grade farmers produce.

He stated that these will also help to link farmers to local markets as well as international ones.

“Our people are poor; their conditions are very hard, in spite of the fact that they are hardworking, very intelligent people. Uganda is endowed with fertile land and good weather” said Mbabazi.

Mbabazi expressed concern over the national broadcaster Uganda Broadcast cooperation UBC TV for not covering his rallies adding that UBC only knows of a sole candidate adding that it was not professionally right for the national broadcaster to cover one candidate.

Amama Mbabazi was President Museveni’s Prime Minister until September 2014 when he was fired following his declaration that he would stand against his boss in the 2016 presidential elections.

Mbabazi  deviated from the ruling NRM party agreed position to have party chairman Yoweri Kaguta Museveni also incumbent as the sole candidate for the 2016 elections.

This year Amama Mbabazi  joined The Democratic Alliance, TDA, a coalition of opposition parties whose primary purpose is regime change. The coalition is focused on ejecting the ruling NRM party and Yoweri Museveni from power come next year.

Gloria Nakiyimba

Gloria has experience spanning more than five years in Journalism, particularly in field reporting, editing, newscasting and management. She is currently working with Capital Radio Limited [91.3 Capital FM and 96.3 Beat FM] as Head of News, a position she has held since 2010.

Gloria previously worked as the Kampala Correspondent for Radio France International [RFI] generating local story leads with international inference for RFI’s global audience. She also served as Political Editor for The Weekly Mail Newspaper as well as Online Content Editor for the California based Ugandan broadcaster KubutakaRadio.com.