This Tuesday afternoon, Parliament convened to reconsider the Appropriation Bill 2024 under the Chairpersonship of Speaker Anita Among as was demanded by the President who has since become even more angry at the Legislature. The massively attended Tuesday session began at 2pm and went on till late in the evening.

During the session, the Finance Ministers Matia Kasaija and Henry Musasizi explained why the President was uncomfortable with the Shs750bn which MPs had reallocated to stuff different from what the Executive considered to be priority areas. Musasizi read through a long list of the different MDA items from which MPs had reallocated money in billions in favor of things they thought were more important.

Then Semujju Nganda instigated his Budget Committee Chairman Patrick Isiagi Opolot to read out the different sectors, items and areas to which the Budget Committee, closely working with sectoral Committees, did reallocate the Shs750bn which the President was now very furious about to the extent of writing his 22nd June 2024 letter in which he implied that Parliament was now full of selfish wrongdoers who are unpatriotic and out to serve personal interest at the expense of the country. Speaker Among read out the letter, whose contents angered both opposition and NRM MPs alike.

Reflecting on the Shs750bn that was being reallocated for the appeasement of one man Gen YK Museveni, Semujju Nganda pleaded with fellow MPs to open their eyes wide and become alive to the fact that in doing all this (including insisting on the Shs750bn), Gen Museveni was merely out to find Shs300bn for his allies behind Roko Construction Ltd.

Nganda asserted that this was unfair because foreign-owned Roko, which the President was castigated for taking to be more important than the Ugandan people, had actually received Shs210bn free money barely two years earlier.

Nganda demanded that Gen Museveni begins to use personal money to appease Roko Construction Directors who he claimed were being pampered and rewarded for the modest support they extended to Gen Museveni as he executed his bush war in Luwero.

Nganda’s revelation created extreme resentment among MPs with many from the NRM side going bare knuckles. One of these was Yona Musinguzi (Ntungamo Municipality) who claimed that Roko had become a proxy through which some key members of executive were ripping off the Ugandan taxpayer. AG Kiwanuka Kiryowa protested this making it clear that Roko was entitled to receiving money from government for recapitalisation since the GoU was now a majority shareholder there.

Yona Musinguzi demanded to know what and how the preferential shares which the GoU had taken in Roko would ever benefit the ordinary Ugandan. Joseph Sewungu demanded to know why the taxpayer’s money was being expended to support a foreign-owned company which is rich and has been doing lucrative business in Uganda since 1969 when they first came to Uganda to construct the Namugongo shrines ahead of the Papal visit of that year.

Sewungu added that as a Catholic, he was feeling embarrassed that the company whose initial coming to Uganda had been instigated by his church leaders had turned into a curse and a parasite of some sort to the people of Uganda. He wondered why Shs300bn should be given to Roko when the financially-stressed GoU can’t even fund basic education, health and water access interventions in the service of its people.

Speaker Anita Among, at some point, had to shut up Yona Musinguzi by threatening to also spill his private businesses in Kampala and the people he works with or for. Yona Musinguzi grumbling backed off and took his seat. AG Kiwanuka Kiryowa maintained that the MPs had no moral authority to complain against Roko because they had authorised their government to keep sinking in money through the Parliamentary resolution they themselves passed on 21st July 2022.

Yet that wasn’t all for Roko. Lamwo Woman MP Nancy Acora, speaking much later on, brought back the same discussion when she demanded to know: “Who is Roko? What is his other name?” Saying she is a diehard NRM cadre, Acora said MPs should unanimously be angry against Roko “because Ugandans are soon going to raid and attack this building because they think we are all thieves with all this money yet in actual sense it’s companies like Roko which are taking their Shs300bn.” She demanded to know who misadvised and blinded the President not to realise and know that it would be better and more patriotic to invest that Shs300bn into ambulances, schools, hospitals and water access programs than throwing the same at Roko from which it can never return to benefit the ordinary Ugandan.

VP Jessica Alupo and Premier Robinah Nabbanja tried hard to back up Kiwanuka Kiryowa in defending Roko’s Shs300bn but there was simply too much resentment towards the much-loathed construction company. Faith Nakut, James Kaberuka and David Steven Mauku Mugole are some of the other legislators who spat fire during the session as colleagues punched holes into Roko’s unjustified Shs300bn. Susan Amero also talked bitter about Shs300bn being allocated to foreign-owned Roko at a time the GoU can’t adequately fund basic social services programs. She actually went personal on Robinah Nabbanja. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [whatsapp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).

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