Museveni urges Parliament on govt priority programmes
Left to right: Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah, President Museveni and Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo during the election of the Parliament Speaker and Deputy Speaker at Kololo Independence Grounds on May 24, 2021. PHOTOS/ ALEX ESAGALA.
What you need to know:
The President urged the legislators to fight corruption, saying he is ready to use the army to fight the vice if need be.
President Museveni has asked the newly-sworn in Members of Parliament (MPs) to prioritise government’s infrastructural developments, security and wealth creation for socio-economic transformation in this five-year term.
He made the remarks on Monday after administering an oath to Omoro County MP Jacob Oulanyah and Bukedea Woman MP Anita Among, who were elected Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the 11th Parliament respectively.
“This kisanja (term) is for socio-economic transformation. Make sure you budget correctly so that you budget for the priority sectors of infrastructure, security but also of wealth creation so that our people who want to work have no excuse,” Mr Museveni said.
He said while the wealth creation programme has benefited only 900,000 people since inception, they are going to ensure at least two million people get support per year in the next five years.
Prof Sabiti Makara, a Makerere University lecturer, was skeptical about Mr Museveni’s rhetoric on fighting corruption.
He said the wealth creation projects have been failing because they are being managed by ‘wrong people’ and that there is a possibility that little money was being injected into the project.
Mr Museveni told the MPs that he is ready to use the army to fight corruption.
But Prof Makara challenged the President to outline strategies different from what he has previously used to fight corruption since his past attempts have not yielded much.
Members of Parliament attend the first sitting of the 11th Parliament at Kololo on May 24, 2021
“The failure of wealth creation is that the professionals are not given chance to participate. They use soldiers to distribute seedlings. There is a problem of extension workers at districts who are specialised in agriculture,” Prof Makara said in an interview.
He added: “On corruption, the President talks about that every year. The major step he has taken so far is to designate the State House Anti-Corruption Unit headed by Lt Col Edith Nakalema, which also I think has some limitations because we have not seen heads roll. We see them touch [arrest] ordinary citizens. But we have not seen big people who eat big money being prosecuted. When the President talked yesterday [Monday], he didn’t outline the strategy for tackling corruption. He only mentioned his good will to tackle corruption. We don’t know how he is going to do it differently from how he has been doing it before.”
