Minister Elioda gets backlash as he defends Shs800m bailout request from Museveni over debts

The minister for science, technology, and innovation Elioda Tumwesigye has come under criticism for allegedly seeking an Shs850, bailout from President Museveni citing debts accrued through participating in costly elections.

A letter is making rounds on social media in which the minister appeals to the President’s generosity of the bailout. According to the letter dated June 20^th, Elioda claims that the president made a pledge to help him clear an accumulated debt he obtained from money lenders and a SACCO.

“You reaffirmed the pledge to help me settle debts that accrued from last year’s successful elections of MP Sheema Municipality. Your Excellency, as I informed you then and as I have been doing through many letters of request since September 2018, I borrowed money from money lenders and a SACCO and I am now under immense pressure to pay the outstanding principal interests and penalties now totaling Shs850m,” Elioda laments.

He goes ahead to provide account details to enable the eventual crediting of his bank account with the said cash should the president recall his pledge.

Following the developments, Ugandans on social media have taken on the minister labeling him ‘selfish, arrogant and self-entitled’.

Thomas Ddumba, an immigration lawyer and resident in the United Kingdom called upon the minister to have some sense of shame, urging that it was selfish of him seeking Shs850m bailout when the same constituency he represents has a budget of Sh800m

“Dr. Elioda spent almost UGX billion allegedly bribing voters in Sheema Municipality, however, Sheema Municipality’s FY revenue for 2019-20 is below UGX 800M. This man is shameless demanding that the taxpayer foots his personal "loans",” he said.

James Ocita likened Minister Elioda’s bailout request to corruption. Also castigating the minister for misusing an official letterhead for his personal interests.

“Show some shame, please. Spending a billion UGX to secure an election surely borders on criminality. Seeking personal financial help on official letterhead and mixing the personal and the official is certainly unconscionable where tolerance for corruption hasn't been normalized,” he said.

In a long post, People Power activist and legal representative Lewis David Rubongoya said the minister’s actions are dishonorable and a shame to the country.

A few years ago I wrote here that one of the most misused words in Uganda is the word Honourable! So here we go again! The Honourable Minister borrows money from money lenders to run a campaign. In our case, the expenditure of those in power usually involves bribing voters, buying intoxicants for groups of unemployed youth to shout at their rallies and to intimidate their opponent's supporters, buying off opponent's agents, dishing money to churches and other organisations, etc. Of course, their opponents who are usually less powerful have no capacity to raise such amounts of money- not even from money lenders.

And now, the Honourable Minister who is also a Member of Parliament, finds it not shameful at all to request that the taxpayer meets the cost of his election! Pause for a minute and imagine how many lives of common Ugandans 850 million shillings can change forever! And then think about how many people in high offices make these kinds of demands! The most ridiculous argument I often hear some people make is that Uganda is a poor country. NO. Uganda is not poor. The problems we face are simply because the country's resources are handled in a very unfortunate manner.

In my view, it is this conduct which should amount to treason. It says something about our country that someone does not fear to address such a letter to a head of state! And then someone wonders why we are involved in a struggle for a change!

Elioda, one of the MPs to have been thrown out of parliament following a ruling by the constitutional court on Friday, had initially represented Sheema North before resigning the position to participate in elections for the newly carved out Sheema Municipality constituency.

In a unanimous decision, five Justices of the Court including Alphonse Owiny Dollo, Kenneth Kakuru,  Cheborion Barishaki, Fredrick Engonda- Ntende and Christopher Madrama ruled that  Patrick Ochan (Apac, UPC party), Elioda Tumwesigye (Sheema, NRM party), Tarsis Rwaburindore (Ibanda, NRM party), Hashim Sulaiman (Nebbi, NRM party), Asuman Basalirwa (Bugiri, Jeema party) and  Abraham Lokii (Kotido, NRM party) were elected to parliament in non-existent constituents.

“In the circumstances of this petition, the elections that were conducted in the six municipalities are not elections envisaged in the Parliamentary Elections Act, 2005,” the judges ruled.

According to ChimpReports, Minister Elioda claims that there is no crime in seeking bailout from the president. The minister claims that the elections in Sheema came at a time when he had just concluded participating in an expensive election.