Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament is set to spend 83 Million Shillings at the luxurious Serena Kigo drafting a report on the Constitutional (Amendment) (No.2) Bill, 2017 after meeting President Yoweri Museveni.
Despite the dilapidating health facilities in Uganda, the report seems to be a priority than peoples’ lives.
The development comes after Soroti Regional Referral Hospital decided to officially close its mortuary services following a breakdown of its refrigeration system.
The hospital administration says the four-capacity refrigerator became faulty about two months ago and Shs4.6m is needed to have it fixed, the amount of money, the hospital cannot afford to raise.
The infamous Age limit Bill tabled by Igara West MP Raphael Magyezi seeks to among others cancel Article 102(b) which restricts the presidential age to between 35 and 75 years.
After their coffee meeting with President Museveni on Tuesday night at State House Entebbe over the Bill, the committee chaired by West Budama South MP Jacob Oboth-Oboth retreated to a hotel to start drafting the report that will inform debate on the floor of the House.
Museveni told the MPs to let Ugandans choose whoever they want as their leaders, arguing that whoever can vote, should be voted too.
Legislators are currently holed up at Lake Victoria Serena Golf Resort- Kigo in Wakiso district sipping on their favorite liquor, watching their best TV shows, eating and sleeping all night and morning, under the pretext of drafting the report on the now controversial Bill.
At least 83 million Shillings was budgeted to cover the cost of the retreat by the committee.
The committee's decision to immediately embark on drafting the report came after plans to hold countrywide consultations on the proposal hit a snag. This was after the Clerk to Parliament Jane Kibirige told the committee that the Parliamentary Commission did not have money to facilitate travel, accommodation and related arrangements by the committee during the planned consultative meetings.
"We said instead of us losing out on that, lets now do what is practical. And what is practical is to write a report and this will also be part of the report that we didn't have money to go for consultative meetings," Oboth-Oboth said.
While they blow tax payers’ money on a report Lwemiyaga county MP Theodore Ssekikubo says was drafted long time ago, Soroti residents currently trek more than 100km in search for autopsy and preservation of bodies to either Lira or Mbale hospitals, while others have resorted to quick burials for fear of bodies decomposing in the houses.
