#WhisperEyeNews
Hon Robert Kyagulanyi is having sleepless nights as he faces one of the toughest moments in his reign as the NUP president. This is after members of his National Unity Platform (NUP) party in Parliament defied his orders to return the Shs40 million handshake.
The 48-hour ultimatum expired last evening with no single NUP MP returning the money.
John Baptist Nambeshe , the Opposition whip in Parliament who was in charge of receiving the money from party MPs, narrated how he had camped at his office since Tuesday waiting for the MPs but none showed up until he left for other businesses last evening.
“Even those people from whom we were expecting the money from have not yet show up,” Mr Nambeshe said.
The cash bonanza saga started on Saturday last week with all MPs receiving Shs40m from the President’s office at Parliament. The money was, according to sources, a token of appreciation for passing a supplementary budget.
On Monday night, the leaders of NUP held a crisis meeting at the Kamwokya offices in which Bobi Wine gave the MPs an ultimatum of 48 hours to return the controversial cash given to lawmakers for passing of a Shs77b supplementary classified budget.
The NUP MPs, who talked to this media last evening, laughed off the directive and vowed to keep the money. Other lawmakers admitted receiving the handshake and at the same time challenged Bobi Wine to prove that they received the said cash.
Some MPs, who did not want to be named in this story because of the sensitivity of the matter, asked Bobi Wine and other party leaders to do whatever they want and reiterated that they were not ready to return the money because they did not know where to take it in the first place.
The MPs also indicated that they cannot take back the money since they were not even sure whether the cash would end up in the right hands or not. Another legislator from Central Uganda said it was “foolhardy for NUP leaders to imagine that MPs would accept to take back the money yet others are going to enjoy it”.
Other legislators indicated that the money would go to critical projects in their constituencies and advised Mr Nambeshe and “the principal” to “stop the drama”.
A question still remains if Kyagulanyi still has the power to his subjects as many seem to feel bigger and untouchable.
