| KAMPALA
MEMBERS of Parliament, who reportedly received cash to support the lifting of presidential term limits, may suffer international travel bans if the opposition Forum for Democratic Change gets its way with foreign governments.
"We shall send the list of all members who received the bribes to various foreign governments and explore the possibility of imposing travel restrictions on these members in an effort to fight corruption," the acting FDC chairperson, Ms Salaam Musumba, said in a statement yesterday.
Her statement was read out by the party's deputy Executive Coordinator, Mr Reagan Okumu, at the FDC weekly press briefing.
The names of MPs on "the list of shame and honour," as FDC preferred to call it, are published on the party's website.
Campaign strategy
The party said it will decampaign corruption tainted MPs both in their constituencies and at the international scene.
The issue of bribed MPs will also be introduced to donor governments, regional parliaments and the United Nations, party spokesperson Wafula Oguttu said.
The FDC's move was prompted by Lyemiyaga MP Theodore Ssekikubo's revelation on November 24, 2004 that pro-third term MPs were each paid Shs5 milion at Mosa Courts Apartment.
The money, whose source has never been revealed, was handed out by MPs Charles Bakabulindi, Anifa Kawooya and Hope Mwesigye.
The infamous incident drew criticism from the opposition.
Aruu County MP Odonga Otto and other Members of Parliament presented a petition to the Speaker, which condemned the act by the NRM to give "bribes" to MPs in order to support the lifting of term limits. But the NRM said the money was meant to facilitate MPs to explain the Government White Pa
per on
the Constitution amendments.
Musumba said the act of receiving bribes by MPs in order to support the lifting of presidential term limits was unbecoming and unlawful not expected of legislators. "It brought the reputation of the 7th parliament into contempt," she said.
The Weekly Observer reported last week that NRM MPs got more facilitation recently. "We believe that the silence about bribery and corruption going on in Parliament is an anathema of democracy in our nation," Musumba said. FDC says the movement is creating a system that propagates corruption and rewards those who abuse their positions.
"We have therefore decided as a party whose core objective is to have zero tolerance to corruption to campaign extensively nationally and internationally to expose this tendency," she said. "We shall go further and send lists of all members who received the bribes to International and Regional Parliamentary Associations such as the Inter Parliamentary Union
, the
Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, the Joint ACP-EU Parliamentary Assembly and others using our network of external coordinators all over the world," Musumba said.
But Ms Hope Mwesigye, the State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, said last week that the money that has been in question recently is meant to facilitate Movement MPs to transport registration cards, open up branch offices and party committees.
"This is not money to buy off MPs or kisanja," she said. "It's only to facilitate them while they perform NRM work in their respective constituencies. There is no need to bribe people for kisanja now because we already have it. We are only waiting for the time. The question of money for kisanja does not arise at all. Money was given, but not for kisanja."
But Okumu said Uganda should be expelled from the CPA because it has failed to live to the standards set.
"If our Parliament starts flouting those rules and takes us back to the NRC days t
hen we
run the risk," he said. "This government should not survive for another day because it is the most corrupt we've seen since independence."
Okumu said the NRM administration has been the most sectarian since independence. "Museveni is trying to use clan politics to cling onto power," he said. However, Okumu said it was wrong for Ugandans to think that all westerners had benefited from the current government. | 
