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You should respect the guys who design advertisements in Uganda. There was this billboard for tyres that stood for several years along Entebbe Road, the road to the country’s only international airport.
It shows strong treads on a tyre and warns of the danger of power without control. I think Uganda’s members of parliament never paid heed to this advert as they were driven to the airport for their numerous trips abroad.
The Ugandan law empowers members of parliament to determine their own emoluments and they have been doing that with abandon.
They have claimed all manner of allowances and privileges because the law was so designed by framers who never anticipated that a crop of MPs driven by self-aggrandizement would one day dominate the country’s legislature.
They have raised their pay and exempted themselves from paying income tax. They have given themselves about $50,000 (Ksh5 million) each for a car, outside their emoluments. They all take trips abroad as a right and are given hefty per diems, which are not accounted for.
After exhausting all possibilities in life, they have now accorded themselves privileges, even in death. They have now allocated $20,000 (about Ksh2 million) for each MP who dies.
This is meant to finance a VIP funeral for each of them. Apparently, they have never heard of funeral insurance. Although such policies are advertised heavily in the media these days, our legislators pay as much attention to them as they did to the advertisement about power without control.
But wait a minute! Who says providing for large sums for an MP’s death is an entirely bad idea? It could indeed be a nice development, if only they could just add one zero and raise the figure from $20,000 to $200,000.
One resigned and pissed off Ugandan posted on social media that for a higher figure than what has been provided, the MPs will start committing suicide on their own free volition. Most locals couldn’t agree more.
With their greed, they cannot resist an opportunity to make money and if the burial allowance is raised high enough, they would just collect a negotiated portion of the money from the selected funeral companies in advance and at an agreed time commit suicide.
Whether they actually commit suicide or simply fake death and drop out of sight, the country will benefit by their departure as more humane members get elected to replace them. If the death allowance is raised high enough, the whole group could commit suicide and it would be good riddance!
