The Democratic Party (DP) has stated that it will be hard to get rid of the rampant corruption in the country because President Museveni has no will and interest in fighting corruption out of the country.

During the party’s weekly press conference that took place on July 16, 2024, at the party headquarters in City House, Kampala, the Deputy Spokesperson, Ismail Kirya, stated that the President’s initiative to create anti-corruption units is interfering with the work of other organs like the Inspector General of Governments (IGG).

“The creation of Anti-Corruption units like the State House Anti-Corruption Unit, the Investor Protection Unit, the URA Anti-Corruption Unit, and others by the President has undermined the work of the IGG, which has branches all over the country and reports straight to parliament. Those reports are used by the Public Accounts Committee and COSASE to help in their investigations,” Kirya said.

Kirya added that all the anti-corruption units created should be merged under the office of the IGG to be guided and regulated.

“These units should be diverted under the IGG’s office in order not to confuse their roles and should report directly to the IGG to avoid favoritism by the President in the corruption fight. The IGGs office should be funded more to avoid limited movement and investigation of corruption cases,” he added.

Kirya further noted that the recently concluded cabinet retreat at Kyankwanzi was useless, stating that the cabinet ministers came up with a resolution against corruption that is already in the laws of the country.

“The ministers came up with the resolution that any public servant convicted of corruption should be denied access to public offices. But amidst the ministers are some convicted ministers like Alice Kaboyo and General Jim Muhwezi, who were convicted and found guilty of corruption tendencies,” Kirya noted.

This comes after the increase in corruption complaints in recent times. The IGG reported 3504 complaints and 1528 corruption investigations, with a recovery of UGX 7.99 billion out of the UGX 38.7 billion lost in 2023. This means that each Ugandan lost UGX 215,000 to corruption.