President Yoweri Museveni has directed the Inspector General of Government and the Ministry of Ethics and Integrity to investigate allegations that the Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among, is keeping illicit wealth in the United Kingdom (UK.)
According to the President, before the UK announced sanctions against Among and two former Karamoja Affairs ministers over corruption, she had been briefed by the British High Commissioner, Ms Kate Airey, that Speaker Among was owning houses and bank accounts in the UK.
“She told me that they were going to sanction Speaker Among. I said: ‘why?’. She said Anita Among has got a house or houses in UK and has got bank accounts from which she pays schools fees for her children who are studying there,” the President said in a letter dated May 2, 2024.
“I told her that the issue of houses would be very interesting if, especially, Anita Among did not declare them in her Leadership Code documents,” he added.
Mr. Museveni explained that that it would be an ideological mistake if its discovered that Ms Among has houses in the UK as the next issue would be to ascertain where she got the money to build them.
“Why would a Ugandan leader build or buy houses in UK or anywhere else abroad, when Uganda, the still under-developed country where she would have earned the money, still needs those investments?” the President wondered
“It would definitely be a moral and ideological mistake,” he added.
Ms Among is also copied in the letter. However, moments after being sanctioned, Ms Among said she does not even own a pussycat in the UK, accusing the former colonial masters of victimising her for Parliament’s passing of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which the President later signed into law.
In the letter, the President also asked the Attorney General and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide guidance on how to handle the predicament posed by the Speaker’s corruption scandal and subsequent sanctions.
He also asked the Attorney-General to clarify the legality of the UK’s sanctions on Kitutu and Nandutu, calling it an internal matter, since the duo is still in court challenging the allegations that they stole iron sheets meant for the Karimojong.
“Since the accused have not yet been convicted, I wonder how other countries can justify intervening in this matter?” he wondered.
