520 lawmakers irrespective of their political affiliation plus 26 ex-officios yesterday evening received a bank notification that Shs 200 million had landed on their accounts.
In the same vein, the Office of the Prime Minister is appealing to goodhearted Ugandans to donate towards procuring the Covid-19 vaccines.
The Ministry of Health, in March announced that it required Shs 500 billion to procure the vaccines.
Only 1 million Ugandans have either received first or second dose of the vaccine.
Among the 1 million, all the 520 plus the 26 ex-officios have either got 1 or 2 Covid-19 jabs.
President Yoweri Museveni, while announcing the current lockdown, said the government would consider lifting if atleast 5 million Ugandans are vaccinated.
Without delving so much into vaccination (leaving it to scientists), since the President announced the 42 day- fresh lockdown, over 20 people have collapsed due to hunger. Some have died or are teetering on the brink of death, in unreported incidents.
A ‘fisherman’ in our new Prime Minister Rt. Hon. Robinah Nabbanja suggested that needy Ugandans should be registered, and get some money buy food.
Whereas a debate ensued on who should receive ‘Nabbanja cash’, government economists later defined a needy Ugandan as that who survives below one dollar a day. One dollar is equal to Ug. Shs 3600.
The Ministry of Gender which was tasked with compiling lists of needy Ugandans has since announced that so far 30 billion has been distributed to these vulnerable people.
Government had allocated shs 50 billion.
However, the system was compromised, and a lot more Ugandans who survive even on more than 10 dollars- a day benefited from Nabbanja’s cash.
But that will be a topic for another day.
Whereas, government has appealed to Ugandans to donate money to buy vaccines, on Wednesday the same government through the Parliamentary Commission released Shs 100.9 billion for 546 representatives to buy posh cars.
The Prime Minister’s approach was for every vulnerable person to get Shs 100,000 and 2000 withdraw charges totaling to 102000.
The MPs who are now smiling to the bank, had earlier asked for an audit on how many vulnerable people received the 100,000.
But instead of demanding for an audit- which they won’t get anyway- assuming each MP donates the Shs 200 million to the vulnerable voters using Nabbanja’s approach.
A quick calculation: Shs.200m divided by 100,000 = 2000 times 546= 10,920000. This would save 10.9 million vulnerable people.
But can they surrender the Shs. 200m?
Your guess is as good as mine!