Former Makerere University guild president and 2021 Kawempe South MP hopeful Roy Ssemboga has petitioned President Museveni to refuse to assent to Parliament’s 2020 Supplementary Appropriation Bill in which some 304Bn was passed to help in the fight against the deadly novel coronavirus.
Along with three other Makerere University alumni, Ssemboga argues that Parliament’s move to allocate 10Bn off the 304Bn to cater for their facilitation is an abuse to the presidential call for even the private sector to come in and help government in the fight.
“While MPs in other countries are slashing their salaries and people in Uganda are donating to the National Task Force, it’s inconceivable that our honourable MPs have passed such a predatory scheme in such catastrophic times.Seeing dignified, respectable men and women stealthily pass such resolution without debate was for me the moment when I knew that the full scale of the crisis had finally hit home.” He said in a public statement recently.
A medical doctor by profession, Ssemboga argues that such money would have done alot to help medical workers purchase protective gear as they attend to COVID-19 patients or been used to buy food for urban youths that survive on daily earnings who can’t earn now due to the lockdown.
“It is a truly horrific development not to come to the rescue of the urban poor who are incarcerated in their houses and asking them to make a living while MPs aportion themselves money by emptying already meager funds in the national coffers meant to facilitate our medical workers on the frontline. This comes at a time when intern doctors have threatened to lay down their tools over lack of protective gear.” He further said.
In the petition, Ssemboga is accompanied by former Makerere Law Society (MLS) President Edwin Mugumya, Louis Kizito Namwanja and Sammy Obedgui. The petition was received by the President’s office.
Roy Ssemboga is the Leader of Institutions in the People Power Movement and a close associate of Kyadondo East MP Robert Ssentamu Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine.
