Vaccination cards to Parliament
A section of Members of Parliament want Parliament to revise a directive by the Deputy Speaker Anita Among seeking to have vaccinated persons presenting their cards before entering the premises.
Last week, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, directed that MPs should present Covid 19 vaccination cards or risk being denied entry into the Parliament premises.Hon Anita directed during plenary on Thursday last week that effective Monday November 1 that Mps and parliamentary staff without vaccination cards would be sent away.
However ,Kajara County in Ntungamo district, Micheal Timuzigu Kamugisha, has instead requested parliament to use the database of vaccinated members to seive out vaccinated legislators as compared to presenting cards. Timuzigu says
”Instead of walking with a vaccination card all the time ,I would propose that we check the lists and see those who are not vaccinated so we can vaccinate them and update the records , to avoid any embarrassment when an MP forgets the card at home.But of course I had to come with my card because when the speaker directs ,we all need to abide ,i don’t want to get embarrassed.”Timuzigu explained
His argument was seconded by the Kimaanya-Kabonera county MP Abed Bwanika who asked for parliament to digitize vaccination records. He suggested that the ministry of health and parliament should have a modern digitalized system, which would identify MPs who have already been vaccinated as opposed to carrying vaccination cards, which can be easily forgotten at home..Bwanika encouraged MPs to vaccinate lead by example
”The idea that we should be carrying these hard copies of vaccination cards is something I don’t agree with ,the Ministry of Health should come up with digital vaccination cards and that data should be fed everywhere.If I forget my card at home does that mean .Parliament is encouraging us as leaders to be vaccinated ,because as an MP you must lead by example otherwise how will you encourage your constituents to vaccinate when you are doing the opposite.”Bwanika said
Vaccination cards to Parliament
By Monday this week ,Parliament was still open to all Mps regardless of whether they presented cards or not .Security officers at the entrance said they have received a notice from the Clerk to Parliament Adolf Mwesigye and will incorporate it starting Tuesday when plenary resumes.
The Ministry of health opened covid 19 vaccination to all 529 members of the Eleventh Parliament in March 2021. MPs were among the first government entities to have its staff vaccinated .Others included Police ,Army ,Prisons among others.
