Three Ugandan legislators have been charged with corruption-related offences, according to a charge sheet seen by Reuters on Saturday, as President Yoweri Museveni's government widens its crackdown on rampant graft among lawmakers.
MPs Michael Mawanda Maranga, Ignatius Wamakuyu Mudimi and Paul Akamba appeared in court late on Friday and were charged with "diversion of public resources," the charge sheet said.
They are all members of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.
All three pleaded not guilty and were remanded to prison.
'Conspired to defraud the government'
Prosecutors accused the three lawmakers of diverting about 3.4 billion Ugandan shillings ($908,605), to "purposes unrelated to that for which the resources were intended."
Additionally, the three suspects allegedly also "conspired to defraud the government of Uganda", the charge sheet said.
One of their lawyers, Caleb Alaka, complained in court that the suspects' constitutional rights had been violated.
Akamba had already been charged with corruption related-offences last week and remanded, along with two other lawmakers.
They were accused of attempting to influence the chairperson of the state-funded Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) to inflate the organisation's 2024/25 (July-June) budget, in return for giving the lawmakers 20% of the inflated budget.
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