Ugandan MPs to get new 4x4s
2007-01-10 17:18
Kampala - Impoverished Uganda has bowed to demands to buy each of its more than 300 members of parliament (MPs) a brand new 4x4 vehicle costing up to $67 000 each, reported a state-owned newspaper on Wednesday.
After several weeks in which MPs threatened to drag their feet on other parliamentary business until their demands for a grant to buy 4x4s were met, the government said it would buy them vehicles itself, said the New Vision daily.
Parliamentary spokesperson Helen Kawesa said: "The argument of the MPs is that government is supposed to facilitate their transport and this is what they needed."
Government officials were not immediately available for comment.
The New Vision quoted parliamentary commissioner Justine Lumumba as saying the government would have to spend $45 000-$67 000 on each vehicle because government policy discouraged buying second hand cars.
It will also pay for drivers and maintenance.
Newspapers filled with angry letters
"We want the vehicles immediately. You have seen permanent secretaries and commissioners, who are below MPs, being driven in Land Cruisers. Ours should be befitting the legislature," Lumumba was quoted as saying.
Local newspapers have filled up with angry letters and editorials accusing the MPs of greed.
President Yoweri Museveni last week made a public plea to lower their expectations from the cash-strapped treasury.
Amongst the legislation that MPs still have to vote is the deployment of peacekeepers to Somalia.
Uganda is one of the world's poorest nations, ranking 145th on the 2006 United Nations (UN) human development index, out of 177 countries.
It would take the average Ugandan earning $300 a year more than 200 years to earn the cash needed to buy one of the more expensive vehicles, said analysts.
In neighbouring Kenya, MPs regularly vote to give themselves big salary increases and allowances to buy luxurious cars despite criticism from many Kenyans who are trapped in horrible poverty.