FDC Skeptical About Shs 35Billion Gov’t Funding to Political Parties

Government’s plan to increase Political Party funding to a tune of 35 billion shillings has caused anxiety amongst key opposition leaders under the Inter-Party Political Dialogue (IPOD) banner.

On Wednesday, the New Vision reported that Ministry of Finance had okayed the disbursement of this money as agreed at the last IPOD summit which was held in Entebbe last November.

Patrick Amuriat, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) Party President however, fears this money could be calculated to taint the reputation of the parties.

Commenting on the implication of this development at Kabira Country Club yesterday, Amuriat said this money was likely to ignite public uproar considering the fact that many citizens are yet to receive Covid-19 relief aid.

“It is silently inciting the population against political parties that you are going with bags of money to the next election and you know how catastrophic this could be,” he warned.

“Our people are dying of hunger and we who are in the mainstream politics have no answers to them,” Amuriat added.

Worse still, he added that citizens are yet to get proper accountability over Covid-19 related donations.

Speaking earlier, Justine Kasule Lumumba the NRM Secretary General absolved government from blame saying this money was unilaterally agreed upon at the last IPOD Leader’s Summit.

She added that the reason Matia Kasaija the Minister of Finance attended this event was to ensure that he does not feign any excuse when it comes to this matter.

“Government must fund political parties because it is the Ugandans themselves who decided that they want to have the political party dispensation,” she said.

According to former IPOD Summit Chairman Norbert Mao, all parties were supposed to receive an equal share for the day to day running of party headquarters.

Furthermore, 15% was supposed to go towards running the IPOD secretariat while the 40% that goes to the leader of opposition would be shared equally among party leaders.

The remaining balance would be apportioned based on numerical strength.