Godwin Toko. Photo/Courtesy
On January 20, 1961, John F Kennedy delivered his inaugural address as President of the United States.
Perhaps it was not known to him, or many at the time, but the inaugural speech Kennedy delivered 63 years ago has lived to become one of the greatest speeches delivered in the modern world.
In particular, one line from that speech, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" has become a common point of reference for Ugandan leaders whenever they feel disenchanted with the unending demands of their country folk.
Our leaders are right to demand that citizens contribute their fair share in the affairs of Uganda, for it truly does take two – the leaders and the led – to tango when it comes to running a country. This must be the reason the framers of the 1995 Constitution, who elaborately spelt out the roles of different leaders through many pages, deemed it fit to also spell out the duties of a citizen – twice. First, under objective XXIX of the National Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy, and then under Article 17.
However, while our leaders have repeatedly reminded Ugandans to not only look up to the government for their personal benefits, perhaps there is now a need to remind the leaders entrusted with public offices on behalf of the Ugandan people the same. On October 17, the Parliament was shocked to learn that staff of the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) shared bonuses worth Shs14.6 billion without parliamentary approval. Further, the sum was more than Shs3 billion the allowable limit of such bonuses.
In the end, the Speaker tasked the minister of Finance to explain. However, URA staff are not the first employees of the government to engage in the sharing of public money under questionable circumstances. Early this year, the country learnt that four parliamentary commissioners shared Shs1.7 billion as a service award for the-gods-alone-know-what.
Three of the commissioners, Solomon Silwanyi, Esther Afoyochan, and Prossy Mbabazi Akampurira each took home the sum of Shs400 million, while Mr Mathias Mpuuga, who was the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament at the time, received Shs500 million.Perhaps ironically, MPs' efforts to debate the service award have hit a snag, thanks to the Speaker's firm stand denying it a place on the order paper.Yet, physically sharing government money is not the only way our leaders award themselves.
Lately, there has been a craze of passing laws that benefit former political leaders well over and above the normal benefits that they are entitled to. In December last year, Parliament spent Shs3 billion on five cars for former speakers of the House, thanks to a recent law, the Parliamentary Pensions Act, 2022.
Some of the recipients of these cars are still in public service as ministers and presidential advisers, positions that entitle them to cars and other benefits. However, they too were given and received the cars.Responding to public fury on social media, the director of communications at Parliament pointed to the law and argued that Parliament is duty-bond to buy the cars.
However, one wonders why a poor country like Uganda which has serious funding gaps for education and healthcare should be buying cars for privileged leaders.
If we are to speak of the law, one wonders how, at a time hundreds of thousands of Ugandan children, sleep on the streets of Kampala and other cities in Uganda, despite the Children (Amendment) Act, 2016, institutions such as Parliament decided that whatever available money there was ought to get the formers speakers fuel guzzlers instead of providing shelter and other basic needs for the country's next generation!
Clearly, our leaders have been on the side of quoting JFK's inauguration speech for far too long; maybe it’s time they listened to it.
The writer us a lawyer with a keen interest in politics, human rights and governance. [email protected]
