By Samuel Opio
Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine has said President Museveni has no moral authority to fight corruption.
“Mr President, you have no moral authority to say anything about fighting corruption. You are not just part of the problem- you are the biggest stumbling block in any effort to rid this country of corruption, patronage and abuse of public funds.”
“If corruption in Uganda is a baby, President Museveni is its midwife. If it is a football game, he is a striker. If it is a song, he is the producer. If it is a building, he is the chief architect. And yes, if it is a plant, he is that fertile soil that has enabled it to grow, blossom and flourish! He has appointed, reappointed, and elevated the corrupt and most compromised people in public office, and protected them,” he said.
Bobi Wine said after 32 years in power, the President cannot claim to still have anything to offer in the fight against the vice.
“So today, President Museveni has asked Ugandans to listen to him as he announces new measures against corruption. What a joke! After 32 years of empty promises, he is promising yet again,” he wrote on his Facebook page on Monday afternoon.
The musician turned politician accused the President of relying on corruption to survive in power.
“How can we depend on the man who created the mess to clean it up? How can a man who has created and presided over one of the worst corrupt systems talk about fighting corruption? How can a man, who goes around bribing citizens with sacks of public funds purport to fight corruption?” he questioned.
Bobi Wine alluded to the case in a US Court where Foreign affairs minister Sam Kutesa is accused of receiving a bribe of $500,000 (Shs1.8b) on behalf of Museveni from a Chinese company to gain business favours in Uganda.
“How can a man, who was only last week linked to receiving a bribe of $500,000 in a United States federal court, say anything about fighting corruption? What can a man who has established, nurtured and supported political and economic corruption talk about combating corruption? A man who bribes MPs to pass decadent laws? A man who only two weeks ago admitted while in Kenya, that he bribes Ugandans, so as not to lose votes? A man who treats our nation’s treasury as if it’s his own purse? A man who treats Uganda’s natural resources as his own?” he further said.
Bobi Wine said It is because of that corrupt system that hospitals have no drugs, that schools are rotting and that the levels of unemployment are sickening.
Bobi Wine’s rebuttal comes after President Museveni on Monday, December 10 announced new measures to fight corruption, including tasking government principal accounting officers such as the permanent secretaries, Chief Administrative Officers, Town Clerks and Sub-county Chiefs to take responsibility for the use of public funds and stop making excuses for corruption in the country.
Mr Museveni made the remarks as he addressed the country on measures adopted by his office to handle corruption at the Kololo Independence grounds.
Mr Museveni also unveiled yet another anti-corruption institution and announced some radical measures to be taken by a unit in his office that will be headed by lieutenant colonel Edith Nakalema.
Other measures include toll-free lines, new twitter and other media channels for the public to report corruption-related cases.
Museveni in his speech assured Ugandans that the problem of corruption is still defeatable adding that the country now has the manpower to handle the issue more firmly.
“In 1986, we had 7 challenges; extortion by the army extrajudicial killings, poaching of animals in national parks, embezzlement of public funds, bribery, nepotism, and encroachment on natural resources,” he said adding that the NRM government has since handled some and the war is now on corruption.
