Do MPs treat their drivers like slaves?

They could be some of the highest paid Ugandans, and the fighters for every Ugandan’s rights, but, MPs don’t necessarily pay or treat their drivers, well. These drivers suffer insults, long working hours and unpaid dues.

To drive an honourable Member of Parliament, at least in Uganda, one has to have two basic things: knowledge of English and a decent sense of dress. And that is on top of living with the public perception that the men who drive those Shs103m cars, live an equally good life.

If you think driving a Ugandan MP is such an exciting job, it might not quite be the case.

Omona (not real name) gets a monthly salary of Shs200,000, mostly paid in instalments.

Although he stays in Zana along Entebbe Road, Omona drives a newly elected MP from Eastern Uganda, who stays in Bweyogerere, a township on the way to Jinja.

At 7am, Omona arrives at the MP’s home in Bweyogerere to bring him to Parliament. At 8:30am, they arrive and after parking, Omona stretches the driver’s seat and leans back. It is his office for the rest of the day.

At 7pm, Omona drives the MP to his favourite bar where he stays in the car up to about 11pm. Later in the night, he takes the MP to Guvnor Club before taking the honourable MP back to Bweyogerere at around 2am.

He is asked to park the car, retire to his home in Zana, and report back for duty the following day at 7am.

All through the day, Omona, who has a family of two, has had only one meal and does not get any other allowance. What he gets is only his monthly salary which many times does not come in on time.

Mr Omona is one out of over three hundred drivers who chauffeur MPs around town.

You see them every day sitting under a shade or in their cars, all through the day and some days late in the night waiting for a signal from their respective MP to move out. These men say they live a life of insults, bracing long hours without food and having their salaries paid in painful instalments.

“Life for us is hard and when people back in the constituencies see us driving an MP, they think everything is alright but those MPs abuse us. They take our money and some constantly threaten to fire our colleagues. We live in fear and are not sure of work the next day,” said a driver who preferred anonymity for fear of losing his job.

In one year since he joined Parliament, an MP from Jinja has had six different drivers. Some of them, the drivers say, just leave because they can’t handle the legislator’s belligerent insolence and some have been fired for taking long to get the car out of the parking lot.

The problem stems from the fact that although they are identified as support staff, drivers are not catered for by Parliament. They work and are employed at the mercy of individual MPs. Most MPS pick drivers from among their constituents.

“There are those who are enjoying their jobs because the MPs they drive understand,” said one driver. “All we want is Parliament to make us part of the system so that our money, little as it is just comes to our accounts instead of being left at the mercy of individual MPs.”

To push for their interests, the drivers have formed an association they hope will get results.