I’m tired of begging parliament to do Its work-Museveni

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT |  President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has said he’s tired of begging parliament to do its work of appropriating government funds. 

Speaking today at Ngoma Government Farm in Luweero district, while closing a three-week retreat of Members of Parliament elected on the National Resistance Movement ticket, Museveni said the time of begging parliament to fund priority areas is over. The retreat that started on April 7 was attended by only the newly elected members of Parliament and members of the NRM’s central executive committee. 

Museveni’s statement followed a presentation by Dr Margret Kahwa, a Makerere University professor who discovered a vaccine that prevents ticks in cattle. In her presentation, Kahwa asked the government to help her fund her project to build a factory that will manufacture the vaccine in Uganda. She said she needs 22 billion Shillings to accomplish the task.

Museveni wondered why parliament was frustrating such an invention that if implemented would not only solve farmer’s problems but would also fetch foreign exchange for the country as the vaccines would be sold to neighbouring countries. Museveni also urged the MPs to help him solve the problem of land evictions adding that it’s one of the biggest challenges facing his government. 

He promised to assist any leader who engages in the fight against the evictions for as long as he/she doesn’t politicize it.

The president who is also the Chairman of the NRM called upon his members to mobilize against anybody who wants to disrupt the peace that he said Ugandans are enjoying. He said those who are calling for demonstrations especially in Kampala are enemies of development.

Meanwhile, the NRM caucus has disagreed with the president’s proposal to cancel foreign trips for MPs and other government officials. The ban had been listed as one of the resolutions that the retreat had adopted but the MPs-elect unanimously refused to endorse it, prompting President Museveni to agree to pose the proposal until it’s discussed exhaustively in another caucus meeting. 

“We are going to discuss in the caucus, the issue of visiting; the issue of being Ferdinand Magellan who went around circumnavigating the world. We shall discuss it when we are not drunk when we are sober and see the way forward,” Museveni said. 

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