Five MPs for ‘elderly’  are a useless bunch

Many will come forward. Five will be chosen. As we are accustomed, people who aspire to juicy elective positions draw up what they imagine should be the voter’s wish list, and then vow to deliver on it. Even the most worthless candidate will promise to deliver a piece of heaven.
When someone brought up this idea of a set of special MPs to represent elderly citizens, it sounded like a joke.

 With the President and his minister of Finance well into their 70s, not to mention that at least a quarter of the members in the House can be described as elderly, it would be to stretch the principle of special representation to the comical if the issues touching the elderly could not be addressed by the Executive and the Legislature without enlarging Parliament.

If the NRM had more lucid moments, they would have made some simple calculations and abandoned the idea. For instead of lavishing the privileges of an MP on a few opportunists, the State could extend its hand to thousands of needy elderly people.

Over a period of five years, the cost of maintaining five MPs in salaries, allowances and perks is at least Shs10 billion. There is already a scheme in which the aged were supposed to receive a monthly stipend of Shs25,000. 
Not only is the figure miserable, but incompetence and corruption have rendered the scheme largely ineffective. Instead of paying five MPs, you could extend your miserable Shs25,000 to another 6,000 beneficiaries. 

Small as the figure sounds, those who are in extreme poverty and have received the money have greatly appreciated the assistance.
To add political insult to financial injury, the same old opportunists that refuse to go away will probably resurface in this new guise as honourable MPs representing the elderly.

A couple of weeks ago, I chanced on one of the aspirants telling radio listeners the usual lies about what he would do for the elderly, if elected. He wants to see old people get an income to meet their daily needs. He wants to solve the problem of accommodation for those who are homeless or whose living conditions are very poor. He wants healthcare for them.

There is nothing original there. Any pretender would list the same things. This particular aspirant had been an MP and a government minister. He had conveniently forgotten that when he was in those roles, he was probably part of the historical headache in Uganda’s leadership.

Twenty years ago, his name and his car were alleged to have got involved in the illegal movement of ballot papers. The allegation was not proved, but it was not convincingly denied.

Rigged elections produce leaders who are cheats and are less likely to address the issues that affect the citizens, be they elderly, be they youth. If ordinary senior citizens have been neglected over the years, you do not solve the problem by enriching further those actors whose anti-democratic activities led to their neglect in the first place.

The most obvious contribution this old man can make to the House is his experience at regime preservation through unprincipled behaviour. The elderly people who seriously need help can survive – or die – in their shacks as they had always done, although, of course, talking about them is wonderful lip service.

If the gentleman makes it to the House, and his four colleagues are cut roughly from the same stone, we should constantly remind them of their nefarious deeds before they reached their expiry date.

Mr Tacca is a novelist, socio-political commentator.
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