Acholic Lango, Karamoja MPs Unhappy with Opposition's Decision To Boycott Regional Parliamentary Sittings

Members of Parliament from Acholi, Lango, and Karamoja regions  have expressed dissatisfaction with the Leader of Opposition(LOP) in Parliament, Joel Ssenyonyi and his shadow cabinet for boycotting regional sittings, starting with Gulu.

They believe Ssenyonyi should support the move to hold Parliament sessions in their regions, despite the UGX 5 billion cost per session, which Ssenyonyi deems untenable.

This followed the address yesterday by LOP Joel Ssenyonyi that the opposition legislators are to boycott the sitting  citing wastage of taxpayers money.

"Each of the four planned sittings is to cost about 5bn shs. It does not make logical or even economic sense to transport the entire Parliament and staff for such sittings, plus all the other logistics. We can have the sittings in our chambers at Parliament as usual, and still deliberate for the good of all the different regions without spending that money to go there. What people in the North, West, East and Central need is functional hospitals, good roads, and proper service delivery generally, not a visit from 529 MPs moreover at that huge cost. Besides, committees of Parliament can always play their oversight roles in the different regions and report back to the bigger Parliament as has always been the practice".Said Ssenyonyi.

“We understand that about Shs5Bn is going to be spent on each of these sittings, not all of them, each of these sittings. The first one being in Gulu, then there will be another in Mbarara, then another in Mbale and one of the Central Uganda districts. This expenditure is difficult for us to explain to the public and the people we represent. It is total wastage, so we are saying, for this which doesn’t make logical, financial sense, it is a problem we don’t want to be part of,” Added Ssenyonyi.

However, Chris Obore, Parliament’s Spokesperson, described plans by the Opposition to boycott the Regional Parliament sitting as a political stunt, saying some Legislators are so used to living in Kampala and think they know the country and the sitting in Gulu will remind them of reality.