Kampala, Uganda | By Michael Wandati | Former Leader of the Opposition (LoP), Mathias Mpuuga, has declared his intention to remain in his role as a Parliamentary Commissioner despite the National Unity Platform (NUP) party’s call for him to step down amid allegations of office misconduct.
Mpuuga has countered these demands, asserting that his party’s leadership is engaged in an attempt to tarnish his character rather than addressing the accusations directly.
“The campaign to character assassinate me is deliberate, and I am perfectly aware. It’s well orchestrated and well-funded. I am ready for the worst, if it takes this sacrifice to return sanity and common sense to our politics,” Mpuuga said in a statement Friday 1, March 2024, adding, ”I accordingly decline the cowardly call on me to resign as a Parliamentary Commissioner, based on spite, and deliberate misrepresentation for mischievous reasons.”
Gleefully defiant Mpuuga promised instead that, ”I commit that I’ll not be deterred by small-group- family interests being peddled to blur the bigger picture of how the Party is being managed without transparency, and the general mistreatment of other leaders in the party.”
On Thursday 29, February 2024, the National Unity Platform (NUP) in a Press Release, formally requested the resignation of Masaka Municipality MP, Mathias Mpuuga, from his role as Parliamentary Commissioner. This call came in response to Mpuuga’s acknowledgment of receiving an amount totaling Shs 500 million.
As outlined in the NUP Press Release, Mpuuga admitted his participation in the allocation of funds during the meeting and expressed his apologies for his actions.
“At the meeting, Rt. Hon. Mpuuga admitted that he indeed took part in this wrongdoing and apologized for the same. In light of this, he was strongly advised that the moral thing to do in the circumstances is to step down from his role as Parliamentary Commissioner with immediate effect,” reads part of the statement.
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“The nation will recall that the values of the National Unity Platform are discipline, reliability, inclusiveness, integrity, patriotism, and service. All actions of corruption and abuse of office go contrary to these values,” the statement adds.
“The decisions of the commission are not personal but collective in nature, and for anyone to purport to make them personal decisions of an individual is a deliberate, well-crafted malicious campaign designed for character assassination,” Mpuuga argued.
“The general public is aware and alive to the internal intrigue and machinations unfortunately within this young party over the last 2 and a half years, during my occupation of the coveted office of the LOP. It became the official style of different party leaders to undermine my work, including hiring of bloggers to abuse and insult my person,” Mpuuga added.
Mathias Mpuuga full statement in response to corruption and abuse of office allegations against him
