MPs land in hot soup for walking out of meeting

Moroto. The Minister for Karamoja Affairs, Mr John Byabagambi, has summoned all Members of Parliament from Karamoja Sub-region to explain why they embarrassed the area and the country by walking out of a meeting in Moroto District.
The summon follows a Tuesday meeting organised by the Italian Cooperation in which a section of Members of Parliament from the area walked out in protest to what they called ill treatment by the organisers.
The meeting had been called to identify areas where Italian government could construct health centres to improve health service delivery.
“What they did in the meeting has embarrassed the Ministry of Karamoja Affairs, NRM government and the people of Karamoja. This must be addressed and stopped,” Mr Byabagambi said yesterday.

Shame
According to the minister, such behaviour makes it difficult for the government to lobby support from development partners to support Karamoja.
“This was a programme meant to support the local people of Karamoja. They shouldn’t have walked out of the meeting,” he said.
Prior to the walk-out, the MPs claimed that in an earlier interaction with the officials, they were promised daily allowances of Shs450,000 for three days.
They said they were, however, surprised when an official from the Italian Cooperation brought them a voucher indicating that each of them would get Shs150,000 per day.
The legislators erupted in anger and engaged in verbal exchanges with the organisers of the meeting, accusing them of deviating from an earlier arrangement of paying each of them Shs450,000 per day as allowance.
The MPs were led by Samson Lokeris, the Member of Parliament for Dodoth East in Kaabong District, who also doubles as a chairperson of Karamoja Parliamentary group.
Attempts by Mr Alphonse Owori, the assistant clerk to Parliament, to convince MPs not to walk out of the meeting were in vain and instead the legislators turned against him.
One of the women who were responsible for payments but declined to be named because she is not authorised to speak to the media, confirmed that they had budgeted to pay each MPs Shs450, 000 per day, but they were later told by the Clerk to Parliament that all MPs in the region would be transported in a parliamentary bus to cut on costs.
“We sent the money for fueling the bus yet some MPs had used their private cars and it was difficult for us to pay them,” she said.
Mr Francis Okori, the commissioner for Karamoja development in the Office of the Prime Minister, condemned the act of the MPs, describing it as “unfortunate”. He said walking out of the meeting was not a solution adding that they should have completed it.
Mr Byabagambi said the legislators from the region must explain their action that embarrassed the region and the country.
Karamoja region attracts a sizeable number of development aid organisations, pumping in billions of shillings to improve the living conditions of the residents.