Now, all you Ugandans ‘galled up’ with the big cars our Members of Parliament drive- back home- listen to their ‘justifications’.

At the recent Uganda Convention in the UK, Members of Parliament tasked to explain why they drive big cars (for which 332 MPs each received shs103m (over £24,000) amidst so much poverty, they gave some interesting answers-to Ugandans in the UK.

• Majorly “because the roads are bad”. (Leader of Opposition Wafula Oguttu)
• They are not ‘doing as poorly’ as Ugandans in the diaspora imagine (Michael Ayepa-Member of Parliament Abim district). The cars are indicative of the ‘good things’ going on in Uganda which they ‘can afford’.
• Do we want them to “ride bikes?” (Beatrice Mpairwe-Member of Parliament Buliisa district).

The cars are not even brand new they reasoned. They are “ramshackle, old Japanese cars” (Wafula Oguttu). Only the President and a few Ministers in Uganda drive brand new cars he reasoned. Would £20,000 be enough to buy a brand new 4 wheel drive in London, he asked UK Ugandans? Do Ugandans want their MPs to walk or what….? he wondered.

They said this was a question they are tirelessly asked back home and by Ugandans in the diaspora. So those were their here answers (in video clip above).

As the issue of bad roads is what the Parliamentarians said drove them to buying big cars, Ugandans in the UK heard about what they can do to help with the bad roads back home; which irk them too, when on holiday.

They should lend money to the Government of Uganda by buying Infrastructure Development Securities sold by Bank of Uganda.  The money will then be used to rid Uganda of its potholed roads.

Bank of Uganda’s Financial Analyst Evas Byabazaire described the offer as attractive and with a zero default rate (from current investors experiences).