By Timothy Nsubuga

24^th January 2011

Teso NRM agent caught red handed bribing

Fresh revelations have implicated President Museveni’s ruling NRM-O party in attempts to bribe top Forum for Democratic Change [FDC] officials in London, Uganda Correspondent can exclusively reveal.

In an email to Uganda Correspondent after news broke that NRM officials from Kampala were caught bribing people in Aloi to stay away from Dr. Besigye’s campaign rallies in Lango region last week, Mr. Charles Ochen Okwir, FDC’s former External Country Coordinator to the United Kingdom, said he too was offered inducements to abandon FDC.

Mr. Okwir said, “…I was chairing an FDC-UK Chapter meeting at President Hotel in London when my phone rang.  The person on the other side of the line said he wanted to talk to me urgently.  I told him I was busy chairing a meeting and asked the caller to come to President Hotel if the matter was urgent.  He said he can’t come to President Hotel because it was an opposition Hotel.  He then asked me to meet him at a bar which is about fifty metres away from the Hotel.  I was shocked that someone was stalking me”, Okwir said.

Okwir then said he immediately informed his colleagues about the details of the phone call he had just had with the stranger.  He said he was hesitant but his colleagues encouraged him to go and meet the person and then come back and report to them.

“…When I entered the bar, a tall brown fellow came to me and introduced himself as Geoffrey.  He then said:  Charles, I know you are working hard for Uganda.  But what are you getting for it?  How many houses do you have?  I told this NRM fellow that I wasn’t working for Uganda with material benefits in mind.  My beliefs about what I think is going wrong in Uganda are my inspiration”, Okwir told the NRM chap.

Unfazed by Okwir’s response, the NRM chap then took his corrupt charm offensive a notch higher.  “…He then told me that if I was interested, he could organise for either Gen. Salim Saleh or Gen. Tunyefunza to call me and we discuss how much money I want in order to abandon FDC.  Before I could even respond, he asked me how much his “cut” would be”.  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing”, Okwir said.

Okwir then ended the conversation and promised that he would think about it and call the NRM agent back.  “…I couldn’t take it anymore.  So to get rid of him, I told him I would think about it and call him back.  I immediately left and went back to inform my waiting colleagues.  After our meeting, I sent Anne Mugisha an email informing her of what had happened and what I intended to do.  My plan was to take the money, give it to charity, and then expose the scandal in the media.

Anne Mugisha however advised me that it wouldn’t make me any different from Salim Saleh who took an $800,000 kick-back from the junk helicopter deal and later claimed to have used it for military operations in Northern Uganda.  Anne’s advice opened the possibility of a scary plot to implicate me in corruption and I never called the NRM guy back”, Okwir added in his email.

Uganda Correspondent has further established that other FDC-UK Chapter officials have been approached by the NRM with a view to bribing them to abandon what our source called their “anti-government” activities.  One FDC-UK Chapter official, our source said, was offered $45,000.  The bribe was however supposed to be picked from Bermuda; a Caribbean Island.

In the last few weeks, there have been numerous allegations of NRM bribery in the media.  Some FDC parliamentary candidates allegedly took bribes from Museveni’s NRM and pulled out of their election contests in favour of the NRM candidate.  There have also been reports of some members of Museveni’s family attempting to bribe Mr. Francis Atugonza, FDC’s Secretary for Trade and Industry who is also Mayor of Hoima.

Addressing a press conference at Masindi State Lodge recently, President Museveni fought hard to distance his NRM party from allegations of bribery.  “…We bribe him and he does what for us?   There is no reason to bribe anybody to join NRM.  NRM is a glorious party and it is good to be in it because it is a party of fighters and patriots. Not wolokoso (idle talk)”, Museveni said.

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