Uganda is an amazing country, no doubt. We have great climate, great food, amazingly hospitable and warm people. But I think that sometimes our legislators sell us short. Well, I don’t think: I actually know so.
When I was going to school, primary school to be exact, we used to have a short break half way the school term. We were given a whole weekend off in which we took time off books and class. No prep, no homework just a break to kind of help us recuperate. That weekend was also one of those that we never took anything serious. We called it Half-term and always looked forward to it. During that time we engaged in debates like : Fire is better than Water ; Discuss instead of talking about the rise of the Buganda Kingdom in 1900.
On 4th April Fr Lokodo the Minister of Ethics and Integrity tabled a piece of legislation that was quite interesting in my opinion. It was not something to help the school going children that were promised UPE [Universal Primary Education] whose funds the commissioners spent ridiculously thus the demise of the Programme. According the Commission of Inquiry set up in 2009 on the misuse of UPE/USE [Universal Primary and Secondary Education] funds it was discovered that the commissioners spent 7 billion on hotel and restaurant bills even when there was no evidence of public hearings and field trips. There was also 10 million shillings spent every day in Kampala on travel within the city or district. [Whichever Kampala is.] No the legislation was not aimed at helping those. Neither was it aimed at helping the very many mothers that have to give birth to their new born babies on the floor because there are no beds in the Health Centre IV’s that the government has prided themselves in building.
According to Father Lokodo anyone found wearing something short in public could be sent to jail for 15 years or pay fines of up to 14,000,000 Ugs ($5,384).
| Soon in Uganda, it will be criminal to look this stunning! |
Parliament in my opinion is going through some Half-Term phase where what they get to talk about is not necessarily priority. They seem to be on a chill pill mode, problem is they expect us to take them serious and we as Ugandans are actually listening to them.
The other day 30,000 goats disappeared into thin air unaccounted for. The missing goats were meant for the implementation of a pilot breeding project for strategic export under President Yoweri Museveni’s poverty reduction programme in Sembabule District. The Support for Export Breeding and Production Project was to benefit more than 100 farmers. However what was procured was just 3000 goats after 333,000 (Sh800 million) from government in the financial year 2004/2005 was given out for infrastructural development and purchase of the goats.
I could list all the ‘corruption’ scandals that have rocked parliament this year and brought laughter with tears to our eyes to us the concerned citizens. However none of the issues are being directly addressed in regard to corruption. The goats are still missing and we no longer talk about UPE. It is somewhat a thing of the past and mothers continue to die because of poor health facilities around the country.
That is why discussion of the anti-pornography bill as proposed by the Hon Minister of Ethics and Integrity will be more like a school Half-Term project. In my opinion, there are more important issues at hand to be looked into.
In 2008, the then Ethics and Integrity minister: Hon Nsaba Buturo also told journalists that he wanted clothes above the knee banned from public because men were mentally weak and as a result the ladies were causing accidents. That according to him was one of the many vices affecting our society. On that list too was theft, embezzlement of public funds, greed which all culminate to corruption.
I am yet to understand the relationship between corruption and the wearing of short clothes as vices in our society, but like I said ; Ugandan Parliament is in Half—Term mode. Question is whether or not to take them serious.
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Ruth Aine Tindyebwa
Ruth Aine Tindyebwa is the youthhubafrica correspondent for Uganda. She is a young female blogger from Kampala Uganda. She is the first ever Heinz Kuhn Ugandan fellow. She has 5 years experience, anchoring News and hosting Radio Talk shows. She is an ardent user of Social media and has pioneered a few initiatives on there like #myuganda256. you can read her full profilehere
