The Government chief whip Dennis Hamson Obua also expressed a need for a fresh public discussion to downsize parliament in the move to cut public expenditure. Obua urged Ugandans who support the proposal to use the constitutional review process to start soon.
Obua also defended ministers implicated in the Karamoja Iron sheet scandal, saying they are innocent until proven guilty.
While meeting the Uganda Parliamentary Press Association at parliament today, Denis Hamson Obua the government’s chief whip hinted at the need for the public to start a discussion to downsize parliament which is considered bloated and exerting pressure on public funds. In his opinion, Obua sees no harm in having each district represented by two MPs (a man and a woman) to replace constituency MPs
The creation of new constituencies in 2020 saw the size of parliament shoot from 426 seats in the 10th parliament to 557 seats in the 11th parliament. On Tuesday when parliament enacted the Anti-Homosexuality bill, 2023 the house was filled to capacity with only 389 MPs who attended the session. Every financial year, the taxpayer spends over Shs.600bn which is close to Shs.2bn per day to run parliament.
He believes that the proposal to downsize the August House can only be digested by the soon-to-be-appointed constitutional review commission. He urged Ugandans who think that the current parliament is too big to prepare their views and submit them during the process of the constitutional review.
Obua also defended ministers in the Iron sheet scandal and urged Ugandans to desist from implicating ministers before investigations are concluded. Obua noted that it’s wrong for Ugandans to castigate and condemn ministers who just received iron sheets as a donation.
Obua appealed to Ugandans to wait for investigations into the matter to be concluded to castigate the ministers. He wondered why the public gets mad at him.
The ministers implicated in the scandal include himself the government chief whip Hamson Obua, finance Minister Matia Kasaija, and his deputies Amos Lugoloobi, the Karamoja affairs minister Mary Gorret Kitutu and her deputy Agnes Nandutu, State Defence minister Jacob Oboth-Oboth, State Primary Education minister Moriku Kaducu among others.
