Concerned Ugandan petitions court over planned purchase of vehicles for MPs

Courtesy: Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, MPs with the President after a parliament plenary session. The Speaker of Parliament assured legislators that the long-awaited money for their cars would be availed...

MPs in the house in a previous session
Courtesy: Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, MPs with the President after a parliament plenary session.

The Speaker of Parliament assured legislators that the long-awaited money for their cars would be availed in October.

The speaker made the announcement during a parliament plenary sitting on Tuesday 16, August 2016.

According to New Vision, if each MP is given sh150m for buying a car, it means government will spend a total of sh64b for a total of 427 legislators.

By and large, the decision has been welcomed by lawmakers but it has angered many people, and criticised as a classic case of conspicuous consumption.

Sanywa Twaha, a resident of Kajjansi, says that the MPs monthly salary figure puts them in position to buy themselves cars.

Twaha urges that the move is erroneous because it creates differential treatment between the three arms of government (judiciary, executive, legislature) and reduces the level of wealth available to general public, the Observer reports.

He wants court to declare that using consolidated funds to buy cars for MPs is discriminatory and unconstitutional.

Sanywa believes that like the rest of other arms of government like judiciary and executive, parliament can equally acquire means of transport by public procurement to facilitate their duties pursuant to Public Procurement and Disposal of Public assets law.

marvin@ugchristiannews.com

In this article