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By:
Blanshe Musinguzi | |||||||||
| Posted:
Sep,16-2016 15:35:45
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Uganda youth activists behind a piglets protest staged at parliament on Thursday have said it was meant to symbolise how greedy members of parliament have become especially the opposition and their leader Winnie Kiiza.
Addressing the press at Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) office at city house in Kampala on Friday, members of the Jobless Brotherhood, Youth Coalition for Change and National Association of the Unemployed Members said they will not stop protesting with pigs at parliament unless members of parliament start "thinking for Uganda not themselves."
"We would have used a goat, a snake or any other animal but we chose the pigs for their symbolism of greed," Mr Ojobile Augustine, coordinator of Youth Activists for Change said.
"If you started feeding a pig in the morning and you leave it with food, it will continue eating up to evening. This is the same way our MPs are behaving; they never get tired of money."
National coordinator of the Jobless Brotherhood, Mr Norman Tumuhimbise, who has on several occasions been arrested protesting with piglets said they have mastered the art of nonviolent movements and the art of creative demonstrations.
Mr Joseph Lukwago, 27 a resident of Mpererwe and Mr Luta Ferdinand, 28 a resident of Mbuya both members of the jobless brotherhood protested with 10 piglets coloured yellow and blue signifying National Resistance Movement (NRM) and FDC legislators are united in advancing their personal interests on Thursday at parliament main gate, along Parliament Avenue.
The two who were arrested and detained at Central police station, Kampala were protesting government decision to give each MP shs 200m for a car. They will be charged with criminal nuisance in line with section 160 of the penal code act.
Parliament will spend Shs85 billion on the 427 legislators, without considering those recently elected from the new districts. The money will be given in two installments; the first batch of Shs100m will be sent to the MPs’ accounts next month and the last batch in March next year.
As they struggle to understand the economic logic of buying cars for each MP only, Mr Ojobile noted they have been ambushed by decision to spend shs 68m on MPs’ burial.
He said they would have delayed pigs protest if opposition MPs legislated in favour of the plights of ordinary Ugandans. "It is unfortunate that the opposition MPs especially our leader of opposition is in convenience to empty national coffers," a statement issued at the press reads. According to the statement, speaker of parliament Rebecca Kadaga and leader of opposition Winnie Kiiza have not sympathized with ordinary mothers and youth who are going through economic hardships. The youth argue that they expected Winnie Kiiza to come up with formal statements “worth opposition” regarding money which will be spent on MPs cars and money spent on legislators who attended UNAA conference. | |||||||||
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