Aspiring and current Members of Parliament have been warned against borrowing to finance their political ambitions lest they burn their fingers.
The call has been made by former Soroti Municipality MP, Mike Mukula (in featured photo above).
Talking to his twitter handle yesterday, Mukula wrote, “My advice to aspiring and current MPs Please avoid borrowing from money lenders in an attempt to secure a constituency you will be pouring your money into a black deep hole never to recover. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Mukula’s remarks comes at the time Henry Muganwa Kajura, the former First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Service, is battling to save his home and land sitting on over 50 acres in Hoima district from a moneylender, Abdu Ssali, who is claiming ownership of the property.
According to Ssali he is seeking to secure a court order to evict Kajura and take possession of his property after lending him (Kajura) Shs500M in 2015 during election campaigns.
However, Kajura, 85, defaulted.
Kajura isn’t the only politician facing the wrath of loans with former Kyadongo East MP, Apollo Kantinti having been sent to Luzira prison for failing to pay Shs108M to his political rival from NRM Sitende Ssebalu in legal costs following an election petition filed by Sitende challenging Kantinti’s victory which Sebalu won after court nullified Kantinti’s victory and ordered for fresh elections which was won by the now local musician turned politician Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine.
Kantinti’s sentence came at the time he was serving a six month sentence in Luzira prison for failing to pay Shs260M out of the Shs300M loan he had acquired from Standard Chartered bank when he had just won a seat in the 10th Parliament.
When arraigned before high court deputy registrar Flavia Nabakooza, Katinti was if he was in position to pay the debt through another agreement, Katinti instead chose to serve the six months in Luzira prison because he had no penny to pay his debts, prompting the judge to send him to prison and ordered Ssebalu pay Shs3000 daily to cater for Katinti’s feeding.
