KABALE– The Kabale Municipality Member of Parliament , Dr. Nicholas Kamara has said he cannot spend Shs 200M given to him by Parliament on buying “a mere car”.
Last week, Parliament started disbursing Shs 200M to each of the 529 legislators and ex-officios in the 11th parliament, to enable them buy cars.
The development sparked public outrage and Ugandans accused MPs of being insensitive and spending on what was termed as luxury while the rest of Ugandans are struggling to survive amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The food was handed over to one of Kabale based Radio stations which has been distributing food for the vulnerable in its charity movement dubbed Relief Campaign.
Kamara said most of the shs 200 million will be spent on support for health of his constituents with vulnerable people getting the first consideration.
“I can assure you that I got the money but I also assure you that I cannot spend shs 200M on a car, put that on record,” Kamara said adding, ” I will spend most of the money on health programme for the people and the most pressing issue now is the vulnerable during the lockdown.”
Kamara who currently drives a Toyota Harrier admitted that he will buy a new car, but was quick to add that it would not cost even half of the money given to him by Parliament.
“I drive a Harrier and will may be buy a newer version of the Harrier but I cannot spend shs 200M on are car,” he said.
Kamara also pledged to buy a CT- Scan for Kamukira Health Centre IV located in Southern Division, Kabale Municipality to ease service delivery at the facility.
The legislator explained said that channeling donation of food through one of the Kabale based Media houses was because the District Task Force on COVID-19 had not expressed any interest in receiving donations.
“The district task force has not called for donations this time. As you know, the last lockdown I donated.”
He called on government to prepare better for the third wave of Covid-19.
“Another lockdown is coming. In our report, we are going to encourage government to prepare for the next Covid wave and, of course, subsequent lockdown if they want,” Kamara said.
He added, “when they announced the lockdown, government was not ready. They were confused and did not even have a database of the vulnerable. Imagine the Ministry of Gender not having a database of the vulnerable. Government exists to help the vulnerable, when they are not, that is how even we politicians come in to make our small contribution.”