UPC wary of MPs meeting Museveni over railway deal

By Nicholas Wassajja

UGANDA People’s Congress (UPC) has expressed concern about the impending meeting between President Yoweri Museveni and MPs on the select committee probing into the saga surrounding the standard gauge railway deal.

Speaking at a press conference at the party headquarters on Wednesday, UPC spokesman Okello Lucima claimed that MPs meeting the President over the matter is only diversionary and will yield no results.

“Whenever the president shows interest in a scandalous matter, something is being hidden; a diversion stopping us from reaching to the bottom of the scam,” said Lucima.

President Museveni is set to meet the parliamentary select committee probing the saga surrounding the $8billion standard gauge railway (SGR) deal.

The meet follows a letter written by the committee through the speaker of parliament expressing interest in interfacing with the president over the matter.

Lucima said, “Museveni showing interest to help solve the SGR puzzle means he is trying to make issues even more opaque.”

Last year a probe into the controversies surrounding the award of a tender to China Harbour Engineering Corporation (CHEC) to construct the eastern route of the railway line.

The committee to meet the President was constituted after wrangling between two Chinese companies, China Civil Engineering Company (CCEC) and China Habours Engineering Company (CHEC), over the deal to construct the SGR after an initial MoU between government and CCEC was cancelled and another signed with CHEC. The former sued government for breach of contract. 

By press time, efforts to get a comment from the deputy presidential press secretary Linda Nabusaayi were futile as she was engaged in a meeting.