ActionAid Uganda Country Director at a press conference to 'Return Our Money'
Photo: Ssanyu Kalibbala
The decision to distribute 6.5 billion Ugandan Shillings (2.7 million US dollars) to Members of Parliament purportedly to monitor Government programmes is a moral challenge for our generation’s leaders who are driven by self-interest and indifference to the problems of the country.
It reflects the skewed power relations between people in positions of leadership and the citizens expected to hold them to account.
It is the irony of our governance practice, it is the challenge of our accountability process.
It defeats logic to see the very leaders who claim to represent citizens’ interest very busy sharing our public resources when we still have thousands of people dying in hospitals due to inadequate drugs and when provision of other basic services is insufficient.
It is absurd to see leaders busy sharing public resources while at the same time the government is saying that it is experiencing cash flow problems to facilitate effective service delivery.
What drives this logic if it is motivated by self interest and greed? As citizens, we need to mobilise ourselves and challenge these selfish tendencies of our leaders - we need to hold them accountable. I call upon all MPs of good faith to return the 20 million Ugandan Shillings ($8,300 US dollars) given to them a few weeks before the elections without going through the right procedures.
