Opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) president, Robert Kyagulanyi has again rejected claims that, he too, is a beneficiary of corruption, having received a cash reward from Parliament in 2021 at the end of his 3-year stint as MP for Kyadondo East.
The claims, majorly advanced by Bobi Wine’s critics, are in defense of corruption allegations against Hon. Mathias Mpuuga, who is faulted for receiving UGX500million last year as service awards at the end of his 2 and a half years in Leader of opposition office.
The two top leaders in NUP have since embarked on a collision course with each camp accusing the other for involvement in cases of corruption and Bobi Wine calling Mpuuga to resign from the office of Parliamentary Commissioner which he has held for a few months.
The latest accusations from Mpuuga’s camp is that Bobi Wine has received similar perks before, and that his case is even worse because he received a handshake from President Yoweri Museveni when the head of state offered to pay off Bobi’s UGX370million debt in taxes to URA to clear his bullet proof vehicle.
Bellow is Bobi Wine’s response to critics as posted on his social media account on Wednesday 6th March 2024:
On the Bullet Proof vehicle and talk of UGX370million, Bobi clarified as follows:
“Out of ignorance and sheer malice, some regime apologists, in response to our hard stance on corruption, have deliberately and repeatedly tried to drive the following false narratives:”
1. That Museveni ‘forgave us’ some taxes on the bullet proof vehicle.
2. That I was paid gratuity of 370m when I left Parliament.
1. On the first issue, that bullet proof vehicle was legally imported and subjected to all legal processes. We had brought it under someone else’s name because we knew how they would react if they immediately knew it was Bobi Wine’s car. It was taken to the Directorate of Interpol in Kololo and they fully cleared it. It was then taken to the forensics department of police in Naguru, and they too cleared it. Then we took it to URA and they did their own independent verification and assessed the relevant tax of 88,612,027/= which we paid in full.
For several months, regime authorities raised no issue whatsoever. It was until we transferred the vehicle into my names that they panicked and tried to look for every reason to impound it. First, they claimed that bullet proof vehicles require the clearance of the ministry of defence, but there was no law to back this claim. After that, they wrote to us claiming that it was undervalued. They claimed that when the police first inspected it, they did not realize it was bullet-proof!!! You can imagine! They then asked us to hand it back to them, which we did in April, 2021.
Also, following the discovery that it was my car, they sacked the URA, Interpol and Forensics staff who cleared the vehicle. Some of them were even summoned by CMI for interrogation and detained. The man in whose name the car was imported had to run away from the country after receiving numerous threats.
We immediately sued the Commissioner General of URA through our late brother, counsel Wameli Anthony. (Civil Suit No. 67 of 2021). It is then that they wrote back to us to claiming that the car was undervalued. They claimed that instead of the 88,612,027/= initially assessed, they should have charged 337,698,776.25/= (Over three hundred million shillings).
As everyone can see, if the car belonged to any other Ugandan, they would never have asked for any extra money or even asked to re-inspect the vehicle. We believe that after realizing that this was my vehicle, they wanted to re-examine it and understand its features (or even plant some devices in there). No wonder, when they took it away, it was subjected to inspection by SFC and CMI operatives.
Anyway, we applied for review of this outrageous tax in accordance with the law, and issued a notice to also sue them before the Tax Appeals Tribunal. After more than two months from the time they impounded it, they wrote to us returning the vehicle, and because they are a bunch of politicians doing Museveni’s bidding, they claimed it was him who instructed them to hand it over. Even then, they claimed that the imposed tax was still outstanding, perhaps out of shame. They have never followed it up again because they know they had no legal basis whatsoever.
Therefore, MUSEVENI DID NOT FORGIVE US ANY TAX ON THAT VEHICLE. URA simply had no legal basis to impound it.
On claims that Bobi received money from Parliament as gratuity or any form of reward: Bobi clarified as follows
I have never received 370,000,000/= from Parliament, and I challenge anyone who says that to produce proof of the same.
The only payment I received after leaving Parliament was out of the mandatory savings scheme, established by the Parliamentary Pensions Act, 2006. Every month, Parliament deducts 15% off every MP’s salary under this savings scheme. The law mandates the government to also make a contribution. It is the equivalent of NSSF for other sectors, because MPs do not save under NSSF. So this is not a favor from anyone but a mandatory payment guaranteed by law. It extends to every person who serves as Member of Parliament. Moreover, it is calculated based on the time you spend in Parliament, which is why I got much less than other MPs since I joined Parliament through a by-election. Actually at that time, if you were not yet 45 years of age and had not been in Parliament for more than 5 years, you could not even opt to keep your savings there. (See Section 13 of the Act.)
I hope this clarifies both matters. The deliberate attempt to divert the population from seeking answers using false narratives and propaganda must be rejected and treated with contempt!
According to the Parliamentary Pensions Act 2006, emoluments for Members of Parliament are subjected to monthly deductions of 15 percent, while government contributes 30 percent of monthly pensionable emolument paid of each member.