3 years, 6 months ago-
Bobi Wine used to hang out with general kale kayihura
Bobi Wine used to hang out with general kale kayihura to help him with his drug trafficking business, and that is how he made a lot of money. It’s a known secret among security circles that Bobi Wine made his money out of weed trafficking, not really singing. There is no singer in Uganda that can make that much money out of singing. Afterall, he isn’t even a good singer though his songs were meaningful.Uganda MPs are contrading themselves
Ofono Opondo: “MPs are contrading themselves. They paid for an advertisement which runs on TVs which says that it’s not the role of an MP to help or give money to his or her constituents then why are they taking this 10bn shillings with an excuse that they are going to help people in their constituencies?.”Yoweri Museveni 34 years in power in the 21 century
This is really pathetic President Yoweri Museveni 34 years in power in the 21 century and people leaving miserably like this?i want to understand what exactly Ministry for Finance, Planning, & Economic Development, Ministry of Peoples’ welfare if they exist? What type of brief do they give you in terms of their progress. Do you ever question their yearly allocation of resources or budgetary allocation? Do ever ask them the improvements? Do you ever ask for progressive in innovation reports? Do you ever look at the graphical progression of proformance reports? What kind of briefings do you ask from your Ministers? What type of leader are you keep deadlocks on government payroll who cannot improve the economic welfare if people that you lead?
This is extremely shameful that any ministry stands up every year allocated with billions and millions of money and people live in these conditions. You are ineffective leader if your Ministers cannot do their JOBS and have to wait for directives from you to do anything. YOU are the cause of paralysis in the government system if all Ministries cannot be innovative or have improvement ideas to their Ministries to present to you to approve to implement.
You need young men and women minds and will be your engine eradicate the shame of poverty. How do expect for revenues to increase when the entire nation lives in poverty? Revise your priority and unless you work on improving the well being of the wanayinchi…which I mean developing local businesses and local people you are shame letting people languish in such poverty. Where do you expect the money will come from to pay the expense infrastructure of roads, bridges, etc loans without facilitating local businesses?
Look how people have come through with bring donations working together with the government no matter their differences in political opinion. as long as you as leader takes the lead in oppressing the opposition you become an wanted leader. Now yiu may say you don’t care but in times like this we put our political differences behind and work for a common goal of fighting the Coronavirus. This is what developed countries are doing working together to fight it as a nation. But start arresting and torturing people because they sent people to distribute food. As a President your first question would have been which RDC are under the areas where this food was supposed to be distributed and people have not received food for the last 3 weeks.
A good leader question and investigates to find facts before being reactionary and deploying army everywhere. You are supposed to provide solutions to issues as a leader. Uganda is not Kampala district. Uganda’s improvement will only be reflected by the improvements done in the rural areas. Improvements is not in the hotels you litter everywhere but in developing the locals or Ugandans ar large. It will not in your so-called investors but in local businesses. You think by surrounding yourself with your war comrades, family, relatives, well wishers…these are the deservice you have done yourself and a portray of bad leadership that is dependent on getting directives from you. One man cannot run a nation…everything becomes stunted with time and that’s why we are where are. Re-think your strategy…food for thought as not everything out of this is not rubbish but the bitter truth.
Officials demand Sex in Exchange for COVID-19 Relief Food
Some women have claimed that Local Council officials in parts of Kampala are demanding for sex in order to give them relief food.During a press conference at Parliament, Pamela Nasiyo, the chairperson of the Uganda Women Parliamentary Association (UWOPA) told journalists that she had received phone calls from a number of women who have claimed that some leaders will not give them food unless they sleep with them.
“Can you imagine some LC leaders are using this opportunity to demand sex in exchange for food.
A lady called me and said ‘I missed food in my area and when I called the chairperson to get my share, he said that in order to give me food, I have to sleep with him,’” Nasiyo said.
She called upon Lt Col Edith Nakalema to investigate these leaders.
The government embarked on the process of distributing relief food to the vulnerable groups that have been affected by the COVID-19 lockdown. So far the food has been distributed in parts of Kampala and Wakiso.
During the same conference, UWOPA members thanked President Museveni for allowing pregnant women to access health services without any disturbance by police at checkpoints during the lockdown.
JACOB OULANYAH SHOULD HAVE BEEN VOTED SPEAKER OF PARLIAMENT
One of the mistakes we make as a party is we never accept to make changes until someone has committed a grave mistake.There was tension all over the country on the day the 10th was going to vote for the speaker and start business. Most Ugandans were supporting Jacob to take over from Kadaga. I think even members of parliament themselves were divided on the choice they were going to make. However NRM as a party was supposed to sit and see which candidate they would back for the position of speaker. That’s how President Museveni called Jocob Oulanyah and Speaker Kadaga for a meeting and I guess Jacob Oulanyah agreed to step down or was forced to, hence paving way for Kadaga. In the session of choosing the Deputy speaker, President Museveni went to Parliament and later the media reported that the President was on CCTV camera as voting was going closely watching, which candidate the MPs were voting. Thank God Jacob Oulanyah won and has been deputy speaker for this term. In all the sessions that Jacob has chaired, I’ve not heard Ugandans complaining as compared to those which Kadaga Chairs. We’ve had controversial bills in Parliament that have left Ugandans feeling disobeyed, according to what I hear them saying and what I read from social media and other media platforms. Sometimes Kadaga makes decisions as a person and doesn’t consider the impact of those decisions and what Ugandans will think or see, I cannot say that she favours the government in power since sometimes she openly goes against it.
In these difficult times, when the country is fighting Corona Virus, Parliament under the leadership of Speaker Rebecca decided to award itself with 10 billion Uganda shillings with each member of Parliament receiving 20 million. It was done in secret until the media got to know about it hence putting it in the public. I think the reason as to why it was done in secret and kept unknown was because it was shameful. We all waited for Parliament to clear the air and declare it false put that didn’t happen, meaning the information was true. What the speaker did instead was to defend that 20 million for each member Parliament. The Speaker has been very active on Twitter and Facebook defending that twenty million Ugandan shillings for members of Parliament. I think each time Parliament has sat, the speaker has had something to say about the 20 million. That’s enough evidence to prove that what Parliament did was very wrong. Because when something is done in good faith, and for the help of the people there will be no need to defend it in public but rather explain to the people on how it will be done.
The twenty million shillings the Members of Parliament received was given out without plan. There was nothing planned that the money was meant to do, it was after a day or two after it’s deposit on the accounts that Kadaga addressed parliament on what that money was meant to do. She informed the house and the public that the Members of Parliament were going to be added on the districts task force and help on some of the activities of those committees. Its very funny that these special members of the Districts Covid 19 task force were coming with a budget of 20m. I don’t know if they were going to offer it to the committee or maybe facilitate themselves to do what they wish on behalf of that committee. Even reading through that plan, you would clearly see that it was forged or done in a rush since Parliament was being criticised by all Ugandans on what the money was meant for.
Also, in these difficult times of lockdown its when the people want support. Thousands are not working and therefore they’re not earning. They do not have food, and other necessities they want. Other countries like Kenya has had government officials cut their salaries to support their citizens or help them out in one way or the other. Also, Rwanda civil servants had to surrender their April salary to government in order to use the money to help citizens by buying food for them and facilitating the activities of fighting Corona Virus in Rwanda. In Uganda its very different because the members of Parliament decided to award themselves more monies instead. It should be noted that even when the members of Parliament received that money, they continue to get their monthly pay and allowances which isn’t little money. For one to be called a leader they should be showing care about the people they lead. When you don’t care about the people you lead then you’re not a leader. People put trust in the leaders because they feel those leaders can do something in case they people face challenges. A leader is like a Shepherd whose job is to look after the sheep, make sure they’re fed well and treat those which get problems, the Shepherd also makes sure that the sheep are safe and non of them gets lost. In case of any sheep getting a problem the Shepherd has to make sure that its gets fine. Our members of Parliament have done contrary to all that.
Parliament is where the views of the people are brought through their representatives called Members of Parliament. Even if other arms of government do not mind about the people, Parliament should be minding about the people most, because members of Parliament frequently interact with the people. The budget is also discussed and passed from Parliament. The challenges that people face are the ones that should always be considered first. Since, we presume that members of Parliament know the challenges that people face. I’ve always seen Ugandans going to Parliament to submit their petitions when they get problems, those petitions are debated on in Parliament and solutions made.
Also, Parliament plays an oversight role of supervising all the government programs and making sure they’re done as planned. Parliament also Questions civil servants and other government projects in case there is misuse or embezzlement of public funds. Those people are summoned to appear before the committees of Parliament and I’ve always seen some of them being sent to police to make Statements and others arrested and taken to court. In these times when Parliament is awarding itself huge sums of money without explanation and without clear plan on what the money is meant to do, Parliament will soon lose the moral authority of Questioning those who steal public funds. A thief cannot Question another thief!
The speaker of Parliament, in one of her recent address called one of her members stupid. She said the members of Parliament who run to court instead of bringing the issue to Parliament are stupid. She again, tasked the Attorney General to guide Parliament on the same issue of 10 billion and the speaker did not consider the attorney General’s advise, one wonders, why she tasked him to guide if she didn’t want to adhere to his advise, this means that the Speaker wanted the attorney General to say exactly what she wanted to hear, but the attorney general couldn’t. The speaker went ahead and directed banks to deposit the monies on the accounts of the MPs even when court had ruled that the money shouldn’t be given to them, that’s not only contempt of court but disrespect of judiciary by Parliament, in the time to come, we expect a serious fight, between Parliament and the judicially and that will have been caused by none but other than Rebecca Kadaga.
As all this continue to happen, the Deputy speaker of Parliament has been kept away, he has taken good time without chairing any session, I think I will not be wrong if I say that it has been intendedly done because, maybe the right honorable Jacob Oulanya would have guided in a different way and save the taxpayers money. As Parliament awards itself this large sums of money, the youth continue to suffer unemployment, our hospitals are in bad state, teachers want increase on their pay, roads are in poor conditions and poverty continue to increase in the people.
Speaker Rebecca Kadaga should be blamed for that mess because she is a head of the Parliament, if she guides the Parliament well, there’s nothing wrong that can happen since she has powers. Instead of standing in for the people at this difficult time, the speaker has chosen to award her boys and girls with a token of 20 millions each. I therefore got an idea, that if Jacob Oulanyah was elected speaker at the beginning of 10th Parliament I guess we wouldn’t be seeing all this happening. I’ve been following him for some time, he seems to be deep rooted into Christianity and so much against theft of public funds. During the walk against corruption that the President himself attended the Deputy speaker of Parliament made a moving speech that I think was from his heart. He said that the people must change their ways and get corruption out of themselves if we are committed to fight corruption as a country. He said it would be meaningless to organize functions in the name of fighting corruption. Someone with such a belief honestly cannot mess Parliament like Kadaga has done.
Whereas, I believe in leadership of continuity but it appears sometimes it very bad, since human beings change without notice and a time you do not expect them to change. I guess if we had accepted change to happen on that particular position we wouldn’t be seeing what is happening today, clinging on Someone just because they’ve got positive views about the party in power, is wrong and I think when our time comes as young people we should look into it and make some changes. If someone has served one term or two it wouldn’t be a wise decision to keep him on the same position, we could make a decision to have that person changed, like Kadaga now would be the third Deputy prime minister or minister in charge of something. Those changes help the government to keep moving and also prevent the country from grave mistakes committed by big headed leaders.
By Sam Evidence Orikunda
Kisoro RDC Capt. Peter Mugisha
A feud has erupted in Kisoro district between the Kisoro RDC Capt. Peter Mugisha and the District Health Officer (DHO) Dr Steven Nsabiyunva over the money that has been allocated to the district to fight Covid19.
The district which borders Rwanda received Shs 165Million from the Ministry of Health, but the DHO is accusing the RDC of intimidating him over this money.
Dr Nsabiyunva says on Monday night, the RDC deployed soldiers at his residence at Gatovu village in Kisoro Municipality to arrest him, but he happened to be out at the time.
He says when he was told that soldiers were at his house, he called the District Chairman Abel Bizimana who advised him not to come home but to find somewhere to spend the night.
Nsabiyunva claims the RDC, Capt Mugisha demands a share of the Covid19 money.
“The money that RDC says he wants to be given to facilitate security has its guidelines; it is to pay health workers and not security,” he said. The RDCs were given their own money, he should use that.”
In response, RDC Mugisha denied receiving any other money. He warned that if he is not given money to facilitate the patrol operations and pay allowances to the drivers and the soldiers, he is to withdraw them.
The RDC said he believed that the Shs 165Million was meant to facilitate all Covid19 operations including security. He added that even the money he has been using to fuel patrol trucks was from well-wishers.
Capt. Mugisha also denied deploying soldiers at the DHO’s house.
This fall out worsened yesterday when the district chairman, Mr Abel Bizimana announced that he had decided to quit the district Covid19 task force until the RDC and DHO resolve their conflict.
He said he couldn’t remain on a team where the two main stakeholders who were given money by government are fighting each other.
” I have decided to stop engaging in any activity of Covid19 till a mediation is made between these two big horns. The DHO was given Shs 165million, the RDC has over Shs 80million; I am just a politician, I am ceremonial and I cannot be on a fighting team,” Bizimana said.
MPs pass any bill or something that isn’t equitable
I always think that whenever MPs pass any bill or something that isn’t equitable will be condemned by the elites but am not seeing elites bashing MPs for giving slums city status and yet you bashed them for taking 20M in COVID-19, 29M in age limit amendment bill, 5M in Domestic relations bill.
LEADERS ARE RUINING NATIONAL COFFERS WITH SLUM CITIES AND THEMSELVES
This same 9th Parliament created 23 districts in 2015 to start operations by 2020. We are in 2020 and less than half of the created districts are not operational because they are no funds to make them start but, even those which managed to start off, they are broke cant even make 10km of murram roads like those created MPs created in 2010.
The MPs have all this information in Parliament about dysfunctionality of the districts they created and even their accountability queries are with Local Government Accountability committee.
The legislation have abudget 600bn per year, far bigger than the development budget for districts and Municipalities of Uganda combined, these MPs nolonger mind about ugandans
The municipalities that began in 2017 like Bugiri, Sheema, Njeru, Nebbi, Pallisa can hardly construct 1km of tarmac road, they are still renting their offices , they can hardly meet the basics as Municipality
Now some of the Municipalities have now turned into Cities and
City will have 2 Divisions @ Division will have its own MP and then the City will have a Woman MP and as citizens look at the cost that will be spent on these slum citiesOnly Jinja City will have 3 Divisions and thus 3 Constituency MPs
Cities to start in july 2020 include Mbarara ,Jinja ,
Fort Portal ,Arua ,Gulu, Mbale
MasakaCities to begin 2021 include
Hoima, Lira ,SorotiCities to begin in 2023 include
Moroto,Nakasongola ,Kabale
Wakiso.
some the said cities u can move around them as u count people and finish in less than 4hrs, like wakiso, moroto, nakasongola and kabale.I applaud Hon Opendi if what she did was in good faith not being populist but it was wrong for MPs to pass slum cities after same MPs knows very well that kasanda, Bugweri district and many others have failed to kick off coz of Government constraints in finance
Still on MPs being given 10bn out 301bn that was passed as Supplementary Budget(SB) on COVID-19.
The President directed them to take the money to districts task force , i wish u tell us what was the use of 55 million payment to RDCs and the 165 millions for the District leaderships?
In SB, the Districts were catered why did u think that Mps will be conduits of govt money.
For kampala they already received 2bn, and all RDCs and other leadership received their vote, why again to MPs another 20M .
Where will the 5 Youth MPs, 5PWDs Representatives, 5MPs for workers, 10 MPs for UPDF, 13 Ex-Officials report the 20M.Its evident Mr Museven did what he did and gave MPs little of 10bn and took away 291bn and 490bn on classfied budget, 600m euros he borrowed.
He passed all decrees that is making ugandans striving with hunger with no any incetives given to the public who have sustained his Empire for the last 35yrs.People should thinks beyond COVID-19 and understand it that there’s no any MP who will rescue them,we need to fight and make uganda free again and this hunger should be yardstick to get rid of oppression leaders that dont mind on its citizens.
Out of 301bn , citizens were allocated 2.5bn for testing kits and the rest to sustain his throne and appress the citizens.
Its not late for ugandans to wake up and fight for what belong to them because corona has brought us all on board and hunger is striking us equally.COVID-19 has exposed this Government that it has no touch with its citizens who pay tax to maintain it
FOR GOD N MY COUNTRY
Nkonge Sultan Ahmedie
Indegenous citizenRDC Erick Sakwa Trial
Folks, Jinja hospital director disowns postmortem report in RDC Sakwa’s trialThe director of Jinja Regional Referral hospital Florence Tugumisirize has told journalists that the postmortem report which confirms that late Charles Isanga died as a result of blunt force trauma was not conducted at their mortuary.
Isanga, a trader from Lwanda village in Mafubira sub county, Jinja district died last month days after a scuffle involving him and Jinja Resident District Commissioner Erick Sakwa. The RDC was reportedly enforcing presidential directives to stop the spread of coronavirus disease when he found Isanga operating a kiosk on March 22.
According to the directives, the president had banned the operations of all non-food stores as one of the measures to reduce person-to-person contact. Only essential services were allowed to continue operating during a lockdown which started in March.
On April 17, almost a month later, reports indicated that Isanga had succumbed to injuries sustained during the fracas. In the aftermath, Sakwa was arrested and charged with manslaughter, robbery and malicious damage.
The main exhibit in the charges of manslaughter is a postmortem report signed by one Dr Ssenyonjo, indicating that Isanga died as a result of blunt force trauma, a condition routinely involved in cases classified as accidents as well as in cases of suicide and homicide.
But Tugumisirize says that the said Dr Ssenyonjo who signed the report on behalf of the hospital is not their staff and is unknown to them as the management of Jinja Hospital. “I have been here for close to two months but the said Dr Ssenyonjo has never surfaced on any of our staff lists and the fact that he signed this report on our behalf indicates that its’ fake,” Tugumisirize said.
She added that the in-charge of Jinja hospital mortuary was trapped in Arua during the lockdown and since then, autopsy procedures have been referred to health facilities in the neighbouring districts. She also questions why the postmortem report does not have an official hospital stamp and her signature as the procedure demands and instead contains a police stamp.
Although the postmortem report contains a police stamp, the police spokesperson, Abbey Ngako declined to comment saying that the matter is already before the court.
For purposes of death certification, blunt force trauma is sometimes found in cases in which the immediate cause of death is a natural disease process like infections and organ failure. It can also result from several other scenarios like accidents, blast injuries, being struck by a firm object, bite wounds and chop injuries.
Court Orders MPs to Return Shs 20M
The High Court in Kampala under Justice Michael Elubu has ordered all Members of Parliament to return Shs20m that they allocated themselves off the budget to fight Covid-19.The Court’s ruling followed a miscellaneous application No.179 of 2020 filed by Ntungamo Municipality Member of Parliament (MP), Gerald Karuhanga and Erute South MP, Jonathan Odur against the Parliamentary Commission and the Attorney General last week.
The petitioners argued that Parliament had irregularly allocated Shs10bn to the Parliamentary Commission while passing the Shs304bn COVID-19 supplementary budget.
Parliament had used its discretionary powers to cause the reallocation.
While giving his ruling, Justice Elubu ordered that the Legislators should return the Shs20m to the Parliament Commission or hand it over to their respective district COVID-19 Task Forces that are mandated to fight the pandemic.
The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga had on Tuesday told MPs that had returned the money that it would be sent to their respective District COVID-19 task forces.
Disgusting Uganda Members of Parliament
Each betrayal begins with trust. so goes the saying.They touched it ( the constitution ) on his behalf and he hugged them in appreciation .
Today , The social distance he creates between him and them is 100x wider than he puts between him and Coronavirus.
People with Disabilities in Kabale forgotten
Over 50 PWDs and their families live in this structure in Kabale Municipality
People with Disabilities (PWDs) living at the Kikungiri Handicapped Centre in Kabale Municipality are struggling to survive due to lack of food following the Covid 19 lock down.Several handicapped people live in this old and dilapidated structure, and usually make crafts for a living.
Mary Tindibasa, one of the PWDs says they have been depending on money from sales of hand crafts like baskets among others, which they have been selling to tourists and vending others in the town, but since the President imposed a lock down as a preventive measure against the spread of Covid 19, they no longer sell anything.
She added that she recently called the Resident District Commissioner Darius Nandinda and the District LC5 Chairperson Patrick Besigye Keihwa for food relief but got no feedback.
Tindibasa says they now feed on greens only because they have finished the little money they had saved to buy food.
Faustah Ahimbisibwe, another PWD says about 50 people and their families live in this structure but are on the brink of starvation
She says she has been hearing of Good Samaritans donating food to the district task force but wonders why the district officials have not reached out to them.
COVID 19 pandemic threatens job security in Uganda
As the country grapples with the COVID 19 pandemic which is continuing to threaten job security of countless employees, Government and employers have agreed on a number of guidelines that should be followed in case an employee is to lose his/ her job.The guidelines were reached on in a Tripartite meeting convened by the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development Hon Frank Tumwebaze which was attended by Government workers represented by National Organization of Trade Unions (NOTU), Central Organisation of Free Trade Unions (COFTU) and employers represented by Federal of Uganda Employers (FUE) regarding effects of COVID 19 on employment including job security and possible mitigation measures.
Tumwebaze announced the layoff guidelines to journalists at Uganda Media Center on Tuesday as follows:
Whereas employment relations are regulated by law, mitigating the effects of COVID 19 on employment relationships is more than legal matter given the circumstances. Therefore, Employers and workers are encouraged to find a win-win situation through dialogue as far as is reasonably practicable.
Where possible, employees should be encouraged to work from home not only as a means of reducing overcrowding at the workplace and thereby increasing the risks of infection with COVID 19 but as a measure of cutting on overhead cost at workplace.
Employees should be encouraged to take pending annual leave as one of the cost cutting measures as well as decongesting workplaces.
Employers and employees are encouraged to negotiate/ renegotiate wages before considering layoffs or terminations.
Employers are encouraged to the extent possible, not to terminate employees. This is because employers will require these employees when normal operations resume. In addition, termination of employees will occasion more costs to employers in form of payment of terminal benefits.
Termination of employees should therefore be taken as a last resort after all the available softer options have been exhausted.Employers who despite the associated costs and lengthy procedures opt for termination should strictly adhere to the law (sections 58, 65 and 81 of Employment Act, 2006 as well as Regulation 44 (a) and (b) of Employment Regulations, 2011).
Employers should ensure that the process of termination or layoff is done with a humane face. Workers should be counselled prior to termination/ layoff.
Employers should try as much as possible to take care of the basic needs (eg food) for the workers they layoff as this will not only help them to stay connected to their good will and intention of the employers towards them in the difficult circumstances.Sectors not adversely affected by COVID 19 pandemic like manufacturing, food processing and others should not use the excuse of the pandemic to arbitrarily cut staff wages or layoff staff.
The Ministry of Gender asked the COVID 19 National Task Force led Rt Hon Prime Minister to devise means of targeting and prioritizing the most vulnerable categories of workers who have been laid off or terminated, to benefit from food being distributed. The LCs should not discriminate casual workers by not regarding them as vulnerable.Employees who have running loans with financial institutions are encouraged to take advantage of the directive issued by Bank of Uganda to the financial institutions to reschedule loan payments.
The Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development will take keen interest in and will continue addressing on a case by case basis, complaints raised by the part-time workers and other workers who by the time of COVID 19 lockdown had no contracts and were sent home without payment of what was due to them as at the time of lockdown.In line with section 19 of Employment Act, 2006, all employers should provide returns and statistics on the number of workers whose employment relationships have been affected or are likely to be affected during COVID 19 pandemic. This information will particularly be useful for policy advice and planning.
After the lockdown is fully lifted, the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development working with its partners will undertake Rapid Assessment on the effects of COVID 19 on labor, employment and productivity and consequently develop a labour market risk management plan in consultation with social partners.
The High Court orders MPs to return the Covid-19 Money
The High Court yesterday ordered MPs to return the controversial Shs20m they received on their private bank accounts to government for public use.The court order for the refund followed a consent agreement between Ntungamo Municipality MP Gerald Karuhanga, the petitioner, and state lawyers from the Attorney General’s chambers and Parliamentary Commission.
According to the court orders, the funds are to be returned to either the Parliamentary Commission account, the National Covid-19 taskforce or the District Covid-19 task forces.
“The funds be returned to the Parliamentary Commission pursuant to its letter addressed to the Members of Parliament dated 22nd April 2020; the funds be paid to the district Covid-19 task force in which the members of Parliament are incorporated through the Chief Administrative Officer,” Justice Michael Elubu ordered yesterday.
“Members of Parliament representing special interest groups shall pay the funds to the national task force,” the judge added.
The consent judgement agreed to by both parties, came barely hours after President Museveni in his televised national address on the progress of the Covid-19 pandemic on Tuesday, castigated the MPs for taking the money in question.
A pretentious Museveni said the fight over this money was distracting Ugandans from the real fight against the pandemic.
“The Shs20m caused confusion, it’s bad planning. But secondly, there were also legal and constitutional issues involved. It would be morally reprehensible to give themselves money for personal use when the country is in such a crisis and totally unacceptable to the NRM,” the President criticised the MPs Tuesday night.
Mr Museveni also revealed that he had met the Speaker of Parliament Ms Rebecca Kadaga over the matter and expressed his dissatisfaction about what the MPs had done.
“I agreed with the Speaker that they donate the money to the district taskforce where they come from as this will limit the damage. I heard that some of the MPs had bought things. That’s not good enough. We have a purchaser,” Mr Museveni said.
Earlier this month, in a bid to fight Covid-19, government presented a supplementary budget of Shs304b to Parliament for approval.
However, in the process of approval and appropriating the money to different sectors involved in the fight against Covid-19, Shs10b was dubiously and belatedly included for allocation to the Parliamentary Commission.
The allocation triggered public queries and outrage.
Each MP was given Shs20m as facilitation purportedly to sensitise their electorate about Covid-19.
Following the storm triggered by the money, the Speaker came out to defend the MPs about the money wired to their bank accounts.On Monday last week, the High Court issued an interim order stopping the payment of money to the MPs. However during the Parliament sitting last Thursday, Ms Kadaga said the court order had been overtaken by events since MPs had already received the money before the order was issued.
She told courts to stop interfering with Parliament work.
She explained that Parliament was working hand in hand with government in the fight against Covid-19 and that they had already released their buses to the health ministry to transport health workers to and from work.In further defending the Shs10b allocation, Ms Kadaga said part of the money was to be used to maintain the ambulances contributed by Parliament and individual MPs, provide fuel and pay allowances for the drivers of the ambulances already released by MPs to help the Covid-19 taskforces at district level.
However, the move by Parliamentary Commission to allocate money to individual MPs, angered MP Karuhanga, who petitioned court saying the allocation was illegal and unconstitutional.
He said the money was passed without being presented, discussed and scrutinised by the Budget Committee of parliament.
He said this offends the rules of procedure of Parliament and sought court to order a refund.Reacting to yesterday’s court development, Mr Karuhanga said he was glad that he had finally stopped the move by his fellow MPs from unfairly benefiting from the Covid-19 pandemic instead of also donating to the cause.
REACTION
Justification. The Speaker explained that Parliament was working hand in hand with government in the fight against Covid-19 and that they had already released their buses to the Health ministry to transport health workers to and from work.
Rebecca Kadaga COVID19 Fraud Comedy
I spent all morning going through the COVID-19 Supplementary Budget Schedule and the Report of the Budget Committee. I don’t like to be angry because of public opinions. I like to read from the primary source and inform myself as well as have basis for being annoyed. I will share my thoughts so that you understand how this government and its employees misuse your money and hopefully that will make you realise that no one cares about you in this country.1. The COVID Supplementary Budget presented on 31st March amounted to UGX 284BN! Please note that in March alone, the government had presented three different supplementary budgets. The first one presented on 3rd March 2020 was a request for UGX 662.337BN. Then on 19th March, the government requested for another UGX 749.82BN of which 90BN was for State House, 6.98BN for Office of Prime Minister and UGX 4.075BN for Bamugemereirwe Commission (I am not sure why they need any more money considering that their impact has been negligible and they keep incurring more and more expenditures). So in one month of March alone, the government has obtained over a Trillion in just supplementary budgets.
PS: Expenditures over 3% of the approved budget legal limit always require Parliamentary approval.2. Back to the COVID budget, this money would come from a loan of 600 Million Euro that the government borrowed from the EU.
3. The Ministry of Health requested for UGX 82,562,065,127BN for COVID. The Committee instead decided to give them more and hence they will be getting UGX 104,188,234,110! Out of this, Ministry is paying UGX 3.2BN to hotels where they are quarantining people. No wonder they are holding people by force even after 24 days of quarantine! Food for COVID suspects is to cost UGX 3.364BN but then there is also another budget line called “welfare and food for quarantined individuals in other institutions” which is another UGX 2BN! So in short, feeding Uganda’s current 55 patients and any more that come up will cost UGX 3.364 and those in isolation and quarantine (not yet sick) is another UGX 2BN. Over 5bn on food! Hehehehe. Teaching case workers to manage COVID patients is another UGX 1.5BN. Transport alone is UGX 5BN! I could go on and on about the funny items under here but I guess you get the picture.
4. Security sector asked for UGX 81.4BN for surveillance, case detection, case management (not sure why security is doing work of Health) and enforcement. They will get UGX 77.5BN.
5. Local government which includes your RDCs asked for UGX 36.2BN. RDCs wanted UGX 7.5BN for fuel, UGX 4.8 for 20 isolation centers per district (this was so funny considering that people are actually being centrally isolated under Ministry of Health and we definitely dont need 20 per district), UGX 1.3BN for surveillance teams (please note that as at this point of my analysis, Health and Security above have also got money for this same item), UGX 2BN for coordination by DHOs and another UGX 50M per district for operations. The Committee decided that this money will be sent to State House who will then disburse. Hehehe.
6. Disaster preparedness aka abakawunga nebinjanjalo asked for UGX 59.4BN. They got their money so hopefully the posho and beans reach you soon.
7. KCCA would not be left out so they also asked for UGX 30.18BN. They need UGX 1.5BN to enforce directives (which security also got money for), UGX 4.18BN for preparedness and coordination (which disaster and preparedness already got money for), UGX 17BN for response and case management (which Ministry of Health already got money for),UGX 3.3BN for water and sanitation (in a city that is under lockdown and where people pay for their own water and sanitation is an everyday duty of KCCA that should already have been provided for). Thankfully the Committee only gave them UGX 2BN!
8. My lovely people at ICT who had requested for UGX 14.72Bn which included UGX 50M just to record studio messages for COVID, 300M to print COVID messages, 300M for call center and payment of staff, UGX 3BN for billboards and UGX 10BN for TV and radio will only get UGX 6Bn. Atleast our extra UGX 7BN lives to see another day, or another thief!
All I see in the Supplementary Budget is everyone fighting to do the work of the Ministry of Health!
9. The Budget Committee Report was not signed by some members who instead decided to author their dissenting report aka minority report. This Report highlights a few interesting facts:
a. Uganda only has 48,231 beds across all health facilities countrywide although it would need 166,800 beds.
b. 39 districts in Uganda do not have a hospital at all. These include Kalangala, Mitoma, Lwengo, Buvuma, Namayingo.
c. There are only 55 functional ICUs in the country and each ICU costs about UGX 280M to set up.
d. There are only 484 ambulances in the entire country of which only 411 are functional and the government only owns 181 ambulances.
e. Although it is Health Ministry at the forefront, security was allocated 29% of the Schedule hence putting it at the forefront of the fight. In short, LDUs beating you is more important than Ministry fighting the disease. Health only got 22% of the allocation, KCCA 11%, Disaster 21% and ICT 5%.
f. The Minority report hence decided that all the supplementary budget be allocated to Health!I hope this analysis wakes you up to the reality that in this country, God is for us all but money is for a selected few. I hope you remember this fact when we get to the 2021 elections. I hope you remember this when you see people buying new houses, marrying additional wives, buying new monster rides etc. Save this and remember to hold your leaders accountable!
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