This archive report was first published on 26 July 2021.
Uganda is facing a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, with over 91,000 cases and 2,483 deaths reported, yet the government has spent $30.2 million on buying new vehicles for lawmakers.
Each of the 529 members of parliament was given 200 million shillings ($56,500) to buy a new vehicle, according to parliament's spokesperson, Chris Obore.
Obore defended the move, saying, “MPs must do work, transport is part of the facilitation for them to do their work. They need to check on their constituencies, if they don’t have vehicles, how will they do it?”
However, critics, including the opposition and civil society, have slammed the move as profligacy, pointing out that the money could have been used to plan for the reopening of the country and vaccination efforts.
“The money would have been used to plan towards re-opening the country and the only way to prepare for re-opening is vaccination,” said Mukuzi Muhereza, secretary general of Uganda Medical Association.
Uganda has so far failed to purchase any vaccines, with officials saying the country had been priced out of the market by richer buyers like the West.
Published on July 26, 2021.
