The outspoken parish priest of Kitanga Catholic parish in Kabale Diocese, Rev. Fr. Gaetano Batanyenda has lashed out at the Members of Parliament for allocating themselves up to Shs 10billion`as the country scrambles to bring the Covid-19 outbreak under control.
Batanyenda in a statement on Friday evening said Parliament had turned into a bunch of thieves that continue to suck poor Ugandans in disguise no matter the situation at hand.
The man of God on the other hand praised MPs who had shown interest to reject the money.
“I praise a few Mps who have always come out to demonize and reject this kind of money; these are true pro-people Mps, they know this is the time where many Ugandans are stuck, hungry without food and not earning,” he said.
The priest wondered if the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Rebecca Kadaga is failing the institution.
“Could the lead problem be the speaker of parliament or the Mps?”
Kadaga had claimed on Wednesday that the money was part of the Shs304b supplementary budget passed by Parliament last week.
While appropriating the money in the supplementary budget to different sectors involved in the fight against Covid-19, Shs10b was allocated to Parliament, raising questions in the public. Each Member of Parliament will at least receive Shs20m as part of the Covid-19 fund to help them carry out sensitization against the pandemic in their constituencies.
The Mityana Municipality Member of Parliament Hon. Zaake Francis and his Kyandondo East counterpart Hon. Robert Kyagulanyi Robert among other legislators have threatened to return the money once it’s deposited on their bank accounts.
Uganda has recorded 56 coronavirus cases since the outbreak.
