Unpacking the lie of the alleged Shs500m paid to Speaker Among

By Scovia Nalumansi

We find ourselves in a post truth age, where the malicious hide behind false, unverifiable information to drive a hate agenda against people they don’t like, like the hoax of Shs500m allegedly paid to Speaker of Parliament Anita Among as per diem for holiday. 

Apart from the discredited strip which contains the purported payment details, the known peddlers of the falsehoods, who are famous for singling out the Speaker as target for their hate, malice and ridicule, and their enablers couldn’t find anything which can stick on the person of the Speaker Anita Among. 

This, first, needs to be contextualized. 

Among has had a successful CSPOC 2024 despite the doomsday scenarios predicted by her critics, and amidst the incessant smear campaign against her for enacting the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023. 

Now back to the false claims, Anita Among is the least traveled presiding officer of Parliament ever. 

Since assuming office, the total number of times the Speaker has moved out of the country on official duty does not even exceed five times.

Her last international duty was when she met the Pope in Rome, and that was August 2023. Since then, she has not been out of the country. 

Since the time she became Deputy Speaker, Among has only gone on leave once, and that was when she took a maternity break and delivered her wonderful twins at Kampala Hospital, not abroad.

Among had to cut short that leave to ensure all was in order to host the CSPOC, and she camped at the Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort that entire time to supervise preparedness for the conference. 

This brings us to this paradox; how is the least traveled presiding officer ever at Parliament now the one accused of wasteful travel expenditure? 

In the 10th Parliament, Parliament and MPs generally took a flak from the public for wasteful travels out of the country, but that significantly reduced in the 11th Parliament, with the Speaker herself taking the lead in traveling only when it is absolutely necessary. 

But the critics still had to find something to throw at the Speaker, hence the baseless claims of a payout of Shs500m.

According to reliable sources at Parliament, the per diem of MPs is $720 per month, while that of Speaker is $990. 

The liars had to shamefully exaggerate the figure to $4000 just so that they can succeed in their incessant efforts to blackmail the Speaker. 

Let us assume, for argument’s sake, that the amount indeed was increased, which is not the case, did the increment only affect the Speaker? If so, what explains the logic of singling her out for the blackmail? 

Why Anita Among? 

Anita Among was a banker for a long time before she joined politics, and therefore would be the last person to falsify accountability for government money remitted to her.

The Speaker has a fully fledged Department of officers who submit accountabilities of all monies sent to the office. 

This falsehood is therefore calculated to undermine the tremendous achievements the Speaker has been making, and to unfairly and without any proof whatsoever, cast her in bad light. 

The Writer is a Member of the NRM in Luweero.