There has been a surge of allegations on social media platforms this week claiming that the Parliament of Uganda provided Speaker Anita Among with over Shs500m as a holiday package.
Individuals behind these allegations also suggested that Speaker Among, who is also the Bukedea District Woman representative, supposedly travelled to Nairobi, Kenya, with her husband Eng. Moses Magogo, who is also a Member of Parliament (MP) for Budiope East Constituency on a whooping cost of Shs 500M.
However, reliable sources within Parliament have informed us that these allegations are unfounded and are being spread by certain individuals to tarnish the reputation of the Speaker and her office.
To clarify, we have confirmed that the Speaker did not travel to Kenya as claimed by various blogs and websites, and the Parliament did not allocate the alleged Shs500m as a holiday package for her.
The sources contend that the Speaker, just like all other Members of Parliament, is by law entitled to receive a paid holiday and to travel with the spouse to wherever she wants, although her adversaries are now putting the situation out of context, to achieve their malicious intentions, yet she hasn’t even gone for the purported holiday yet.
“The correct context of this false two months allegedly paid out to Speaker Anita Among is that the Speaker and her spouse, like another category of specified public officials in Parliament and Government, are entitled to holiday, which in her case is one month, to a destination of her choice,” the source said, adding that;
“What is amusing is that she has never even taken that leave since she became Deputy Speaker and Speaker.”
Explaining why the Speaker decided to go on holiday after not doing so for a long time, the sources noted that;
“It has been impractical for the Rt. Hon Speaker to take this holiday or any leave for that matter since becoming Deputy Speaker and subsequently Speaker, due to work commitments. The exception has been her maternity leave, which she took to deliver her babies at the Kampala Hospital, in October 2023, which lasted only one month before she resumed work to coordinate preparations for the successfully conducted CSPOC 2024 meetings.”
The sources also refuted allegations that the Speaker indeed travelled out of the country with her husband Hajj Magogo, making it very clear that this is another lie being peddled by her enemies.
“The Speaker and her family have not gone on holiday yet, owing to her busy official schedule, and will be taking this one-month holiday in a phased manner spread out across the calendar year, utilizing upcoming recess and end of the critical budgeting process, and other opportunities as they may arise to spare some critical time as a mother and wife to bond with her family away from official duty,” the sources revealed.
To expound on the matter, they added; “It must be noted that Speaker Among has been very deliberate on cutting travel abroad in Parliament, leading by example, and she is undoubtedly one of the least travelled public officials in Uganda, which has ensured that the 11th Parliament commits adequate time and human resource to process official business efficiently and effectively.”
Relaying her successful tenure as the Speaker, the sources revealed that when the 11th Parliament hit the half-term mark in December 2023, the House had a total of 257 sittings, 75 Bills passed, 109 resolutions adopted, 14 motions passed, 27 Private Members granted leave to introduce Bills, and 126 reports processed and adopted.
In a bid to shed more light on the matter, when local online tabloid Chimpreports reached out to Speaker Among about the allegations, she admitted her lawful entitlement for a paid holiday but refuted the wild, malicious and inauthentic exaggerated figures being spread to diminish her public standing.
“The biggest problem with the online crusaders is that this is no longer a quest for accountability, but lies and half-truths are cleverly cherry-picked to score a political point and blackmail the Speaker,” the sources stressed, noting that;
“The Rt. Hon Speaker believes in honest, truthful, well-intended engagements with all seekers of truth and accountability if questions and inquiries are put to her office, and instead of allowing the lies, distortions and hate advocacy to derail her from executing her constitutional mandate.”
