Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Joel Ssenyonyi, has issued a “fraud alert” against five Members of Parliament, accusing them of impersonating him to fraudulently obtain an invitation to a foreign workshop in Kenya.
In a strongly worded statement released Wednesday, Ssenyonyi said the legislators—Joyce Bagala (Mityana Woman MP), Michael Kakembo Mbwatekamwa (Entebbe Municipality MP), Juliet Kakande Nakabuye (Masaka City Woman MP), Richard Lumu (Mityana County South MP), and Sarah Najjuma (Nakaseke District Woman MP, NRM)—used his name without consent to secure clearance for a two-week workshop in Mombasa, set for May 18 to 31.
“These five Honourable colleagues obtained an invitation in my name from some organisation in Kenya, for them to attend some random workshop in Mombasa next month for two weeks,” Ssenyonyi wrote.
“They then forwarded it to the Speaker for clearance for them to be facilitated for the trip.”
The invitation was issued by the Legislative Centre, a human capital development group based in Kenya.
It was addressed to “the Leader of the Opposition and his/her delegation,” a designation Ssenyonyi now says was misused by the MPs to present themselves as his official entourage.
Ssenyonyi was particularly alarmed that Najjuma, a ruling party legislator, was falsely included as part of an "Opposition delegation" allegedly led by him.
“The challenge is that they didn’t inform or consult me that they would use my name to obtain this invitation, so they impersonated me,” he stated.
“Even more problematic, the list includes an NRM MP on the ‘Opposition delegation’ which apparently is to be led by myself as LoP.”
The opposition leader revealed that one of the MPs went as far as manually inserting their name onto the official letter using a pen after it had already been issued.
“All this while, I had no knowledge about this supposed trip or the entire scheme of these members, until I somehow landed on this letter,” he added.
“Why would ‘Honourable’ members choose to behave fraudulently like this!”
The invitation letter, signed by Denis Musyoka, Director of the Legislative Centre, confirms the organisation’s readiness to host the delegation.
However, it clarifies that the participants would be responsible for their own travel and accommodation costs.
There has not yet been any response from the Office of the Speaker or from the MPs named.