I Can’t  Spend 200 Million On A Car, Mp Kamara

By Naboth Isaac Niwagaba

Kabale Municipality Member Of Parliament Dr. Nicholas Kamara has said he cannot spend 200 million given to him by the government on buying “a mere car”

Last week on Thursday, the government of Uganda started remitting UGX 200M to each of the 529 legislators and ex-officials in the 11th parliament, to enable them to buy cars. 

The development sparked public outrage as many people accused Government of spending such an amount of money on luxuries for Mps at a time when the country is struggling to raise enough funds for the fight against COVID-19. 

However, Mps are free to decide on how to spend the money.

Kamara who joined parliament on the FDC ticket was today responding to the issue after he donated 5 tonnes of Maize flour to support vulnerable people affected by the COVID-19 Lockdown in his constituency.

The food was handed over to the Kabale based Radio station Freedom FM which has been distributing food for the vulnerable in its charity movement  dubbed “Freedom Radio Relief Campaign”

Kamara currently drives a Toyota Harrier, and he admitted that he was going to buy a new car, but he was quick to add that it would not cost even half of the money given to him by Parliament. 

He said the biggest percentage of his money will be spent on support for the health of his constituents with vulnerable people getting the first consideration.

CUE IN… KAMARA ON NEW CAR

Kamara also pledged to buy a CT- Scan for Kamukira Health Centre IV located in Southern Division, Kabale Municipality.

Kamara noted that he was shocked to learn that government did not have data for the vulnerable people before announcing the current lockdown.

 He revealed that in a  report presented to parliament last week, the Parliamentary task force on COVID-19 had recommended that Government should prepare for the third wave of the pandemic to avoid “panic interventions.”

He said that his donation of food through Freedom Radio was because the Kabale District Task Force on COVID-19  had not expressed any interest in receiving any donations.

Meanwhile, the Freedom Radio Manager Barnabas Tugumisirize who is also the Chairperson of the Task Force distributing food relief for the vulnerable People explained that their campaign was targetting categories of people whose livelihood was severely affected by the COVID-19 lockdown.

Mr. Barnabas said they had already completed the distribution phase for people living with disabilities – PWDs and the next category would be  Slum dwellers.

According to Barnabas, other target groups include the most vulnerable people in the transport sector, Commercial sex workers, and Nursery schools, teachers.