Member of Parliament representing Nyendo-Mukungwe on the National Unity Platform (NUP) ticket and the Parliamentary Commissioner in the 11th Parliament, Mathias Mpuuga, has called NUP’s directive for his resignation malicious and a cowardly move.
He said this while retaliating to NUP’s statement that requested his resignation as the parliamentary commissioner, which he termed cowardly since it was based on spite and deliberate misinterpretation for mischievous reasons.
According to a statement released by Mpuuga on March 1, 2024, he will 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 general mistreatment of other leaders in the party.
“Let me initially re-confirm my commitment to the core values of the party, which I verify, understand, and cherish more than many know. I shall continue to be of service to my party,” Mpuuga stated.
He noted that the campaign to character assassinate him is deliberate, and he is perfectly aware that it is well orchestrated and well-funded. Mpuuga added that he is prepared for the worst and that if it is what it takes to return sanity to his party, he will sacrifice to return common sense to the politics of the party.
Mpuuga further stated that the general public has been aware of the internal intrigue and machinations within the young party for over 2 years, citing that during his occupation at the office of the Leader of Opposition, it had become the style of different party leaders to undermine his work, including hiring bloggers to abuse and insult him.
“I stayed calm and committed throughout those compelling times, because the call to serve above self remained my creed.” Mpuuga said.
Mpuuga called attention to the dealings of the commission, and he said that the decisions of the commission are not personal but collective in nature, including determining the range of legally permissible payments that may not be a salary, allowances, gratuity, honoraria, and car grants, among others.
“The duties and roles of the parliamentary commission are well stipulated in the laws of the land and couched in basic language, an issue I shared and labored to educate my comrades with whom we interacted in an informal conversation at the party offices,” Mpuuga said.
He concluded by saying that calling such payments corrupt is the highest level of spite, double standards, and deliberate misrepresentations to the public and membership of the party on a purely selfish and malicious mission.
This follows NUP’s statement of February 29, 2024, directing Mpuuga to resign as the parliamentary commissioner, following a hash tag that has been running on social media, named Uganda Parliament Exhibition, which claimed Mpuuga had taken Ugx.500 million as a ‘service reward’.
