MPs Opendi, Oboth donate their Shs20m to Tororo district Covid-19 task force

Two Members of Parliament from Tororo District in eastern Uganda have heeded to President Museveni’s call and donated to the district Covid-19 task force Shs20m they each received to help fight further spread of coronavirus in Uganda.
The minister of state for minerals also the district Woman MP, Ms Sarah Opendi was the first to hand over the cash on Thursday morning while Jacob Oboth Oboth the West Budama South MP handed over his later in the afternoon.
While handing over the money to the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) at the district’s Boma grounds, the lawmakers said the money had good intentions but “not well packaged.”

They appealed to the district task force to ensure that the money is used to buy food for the vulnerable people affected by the virus lockdown in the district.
Before handing over the cash, Ms Opendi clarified that none of the MPs in the House had a hand in allocating the Shs20 million to themselves as portrayed by the public before the lauded court for blocking the MPs from using the money because some of the MP’s have bigger constituencies that the money given would not even be enough.
She gave an example of Tororo district that has a population of over 600,000 people.
She said if she was to use the money to buy maize flour, it would appear like a drop in the ocean.

She said since the district has about six MPs, it would be wise to pool the money together to buy more food using the Shs120 million instead of each or some MPs making individual contributions.
‘’I’m handing over this money to the district task force as the president directed but it is my appeal that you use it to buy food for our people. Don’t use it to pay allowances because money for allowances was earlier released by government,’’ she said.

Ms Opendi also requested the security team to help arrest all individuals still defying the presidential directives on social distancing and virus lockdown citing an incident where the chairperson of NRM electoral commission, Mr Tanga Odoi was allegedly seen moving to burials de-campaigning her.
Mr Oboth Oboth equally said said none of the MPs had interest in the money, especially at the time when people are in a crisis because of the virus.
Mr Oboth also donated hand washing equipment including sanitizers and said they were supposed to be used in public places like health facilities, schools and trading centres.

The MPs lauded the district task force for the tireless efforts they put in place towards eradicating the spread of the virus pandemic.
Meanwhile, the Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Nickson Owole thanked the legislators for being generous and law abiding and pledged that the district task force would use the money to serve the intended purpose.