Opposition MPs have no moral authority to mock President Museveni’s clothing expenditure, while he does their work

I followed the events on the floor of Parliament, where a section of Opposition Members of Parliament turned comical while expressing their disagreement over a proposal by the State House to set aside Shs350 million to cater for President Museveni’s bedding, clothes and footwear.

These MPs threw around all clans of satire, dug deep into their tanks of jocular content, and traded in all manner of scorn to drive the point home that President Museveni is the most worthless to have such a “staggering” amount of money spent on him, especially to dress him up.

The MPs even brought a comparative analysis, saying the President is not a star from Hollywood and needs no daily change in wardrobe anyway, given that he reigns over a poor country!

Let me digress by stating the irony in their argument; While people like Ssemujju are happy to note that Uganda is a poor country to spend 350m on the President’s bedding, clothes and footwear, they are the direct beneficiaries of an economy revived by President Museveni’s government to be able to foot their salaries of at least Shs35m a month, minus allowances which are not small either.

Ssemujju was the chief whip for the opposition in 2018 when members of parliament doubled their salaries and most have been in the house for more than a decade, hence partaking of a Shs320m car grant and a Shs50m wardrobe allowance.

The parliament that Ssemujju and group are so happy to sit in and make a mockery of President Museveni costs this impoverished country over Shs11b per month on salaries alone; they also earn fuel allowances of over Shs10m,  a constituency support fee of Shs17m, a travel allowance of Shs 2.5m per night abroad and Shs 400,000 per night within the country.

This group contend this is a very poor country, yet they never spend a month without enjoying these huge benefits in exchange for sitting around in parliament in neat suits and swiping away on expensive Ipads while engaging in raising points of order and information all day!

It is, therefore, not strange that in their wisdom, they feel President Museveni who is traversing the country to educate Ugandans they represent on getting out of poverty through wealth creation deserves no dressing.

President Museveni is also traversing the country commissioning factories to increase productivity, moving abroad to look for a market for Ugandan products and kusaka ( woo) investors to come to Uganda, while those so against his bedding and clothing allowance are out of the country each time in the name of benchmarking! What has this “poor’ country benefited from the umpteen years of heavily financed MPs benchmarking trips?

Notwithstanding, those that call this poor country have no idea or are simply adamant about the fact that thanks to President Museveni, it has grown from what was once an enclave economy of the 3Cs (coffee, cotton and copper) and 3Ts (tea, tobacco and tourism) to an economy where things like milk, maize, cassava are now cash products.

The once dilapidated economy is now moving four-fold; recovery, expansion, diversification and transformation and the champion of this movement, President Museveni is under attack by those whose jobs he has decided to undertake, to teach their constituents how to get out of poverty.

Instead, I propose these MPs support President Museveni’s ITTS (Investments, Trade, Tourism and Security) and the import substitution project, especially regarding coffee in which he intends to boost Uganda’s economy to $500b dollars for them to keep earning and debate his clothing.

Jumping onto the clothing of a man who is traversing the country to deliver wealth creation messages to your constituents while you sit in parliament is what is summed up as: “They left undone what they ought to have done and they did that they ought not to have done (Bakareka ebibashemereire kukora, bakora ebibatashemereire kukora).