During the first reading of the constitutional amendment bill 2024 recently, Nyendo Mukungwe County Member of Parliament Mathias Mpuuga unveiled the proposed new electoral reforms.
The proposals include the restoration of term limits, reducing the size of parliament, as well as allowing prisoners and Ugandans in diaspora to vote. The proposals sound good, and a section of Ugandans have been waiting for them.
However, the reforms will not change the fact that Mpuuga participated in an immoral act where he and other parliamentary commissioners, including Prossy Akampurira, scandalously rewarded themselves with Shs1.7 billion.
Despite the recent court ruling, the Shs1.7 billion award has remained a thorn in the flesh of all Ugandans, and not even the long-awaited electoral reforms will exonerate the Nyendo Mukungwe legislator.
It is now a public secret that the court ruling was not in good faith, and even the complainant is said to have been a close ally of the culprits.
The court ruling just saved the culprits from being impeached but did not cleanse them of the immoral act. Because of the service award, it is predictable that Mathias Mpuuga and the commissioners involved will face it rough in the coming 2026 elections.
In Rubanda, the district Woman MP Akampurira is already facing bitter wrath from electorates who have vowed to show her parliamentary exit and replace her with Jacqueline Katabazi.
Ugandans have continued to ask what the current parliamentary commissioners have done to deserve the service award other previous commissioners had not received.
The issue of service awards will never leave the minds of Ugandans, and it will always be hard for the opposition to be trusted since it exposes them as thieves.
Let him table the electoral reforms, but remember that he will pay for the immoral service award come the 2026 elections. No amount of political and mental games will have him and his group exonerated.
Mpuuga thinks that he is smarter, but it may not be the case. Ugandans may keep silent for some time but will never forget the issue of service awards.
The time will come for the culprits to pay, and the best time is 2026. The electoral reforms are not enough to make him clean.