The image of the Parliament of Uganda has lately been soiled both locally and internationally due to corruption and embezzlement. The parliament exhibition left the whole world in shock after revealing how tax payers’ money is being embezzled at the 11th parliament of Uganda, culminating in the anti-corruption protests.
Whereas Speaker Anita Annet Among attributes the protests to LGBTQ promoters, it is true the parliament is undoubtedly corrupt and the anti-gay law shouldn’t be used as an excuse to sanitize what is happening at parliament. The gay promoters can only take advantage of the situation, but they are not the ones forcing parliamentary officials to steal taxpayers’ money.
The parliamentary commissioners’ service award, the speakers’ so-called cooperative social responsibility involving billions of shillings, the cooperatives scandal that has seen many members of parliament arrested, as well as the collusion to defraud Ugandans by tampering with the budget, have nothing to do with the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023 that was passed.
The President of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, has also severally come out to condemn the corruption at parliament and made a promise to take action. Every Ugandan is disgusted with the current corruption levels at parliament, coupled with too much wastage with impunity.
It is also interesting how the head of parliament can fail to come out to condemn the same but instead wants to attribute everything to gay promoters. It is true the gay promoters want to interfere with the country’s business after passing the anti-homosexuality law, but this shouldn’t be used as an excuse by the parliamentary officials to continue swindling taxpayers’ money.
As a matter of fact, the youths need to be listened to and have their grievances resolved to avoid giving a chance to gay promoters to influence the same youths and lure them into more chaotic demonstrations. The government has concentrated on thwarting demonstrations, but no focus has been put on solving the causes of these demonstrations. For example, the issue of parliamentary commissioners awarding themselves Ugx 1.7 billion has damaged the image of parliament beyond repair, but neither the parliament nor the NRM party has shown the will to take action.
The lack of will to fight corruption and not listening to citizens, especially the youth who are grappling with unemployment and hopelessness, gives a ground and platform to the gay promoters to mislead them, and the demonstrations may be uncontrollable in the future. Corruption is more of a moral issue that needs multi-sectoral approaches to handle. If there is nothing done to have this corruption issue solved expeditiously, a country with more than 60% youth shall have governance in the future.
