Yesterday during the plenary, Zombo Woman MP Esther Afoyo-chan tabled a suggestion to the floor of parliament, requesting each MP to cough shs2m and be directed towards fighting Covid_19. In her submission, Hon. Esther cited that the money if collected, would help in purchasing of Covid_19 vaccines to help vaccinate children between 12-18 years, hence allowing re-openning of schools.
For referrence purposes, the 11th parliament has 529 MPs. If each gave in shs2m, over 1bn would be colected and it would surely help out. Unfortunately, Hon.Esther's plee was not recieved with open arms.
“The Pakwach local government taskforce in the last two weeks requested the communities of Pakwach to contribute to the oxygen cylinders and we did. It doesn’t have to come to Parliament and tomorrow the media will say the MPs who are earning so much have refused to Shs2 million each. I feel that should be done on individual basis,” Said Ms Jane Pacuto, the Pakwach Woman MP
Much as Hon. Esther went religious and quoted the bible, saying even God told people to pay tithe, the idea of giving in that 2m seemed rather hard to comprehend. Jonathan Odur, the Erute South MP said the proposal was against the laws of parliament.
Kira Municipality MP Hon. Ibrahim Ssenujju Nganda however said the idea of giving out money by MPs should be voluntary, not forcefully done, just like it was done by the 10th parliament while collecting money to build Nsambya hospital cancer facility.
The deputy Speaker in her ruling, closed the topic and advised MPs who wished to contribute to go to the national Covid task force.
