The Kira Municipality Member of Parliament Hon Ssemujju Nganda has accused the government of fueling debate on the State burial for fallen Speaker Jacob Oulanyah.
Ssemujju was eulogizing the fallen Speaker at Parliament when he accused the government of incompetence and scandalizing 1.2 billion dolled out for his State burial.
The government has been on the spot for injecting huge sums of money into the burial ceremony of the deceased. The first budget that leaked to the public worth 2.5 billion was criticized largely prompting government to slash it to 1.8 billion. The Ministry of Finance further bowed to pressure cutting costs to 1.2 billion shillings.
Now, Nganda says the government is mishandling the death of the Speaker by failing to explain to the public what it means to accord someone a State burial.
He says since the government declared Friday a public holiday, parastatals like the Uganda Revenue Authority risk loosing billions in shillings because businesses are closed.
Semmujju further accused the President Yoweri Museveni and other state officials of remaining silent while the public pokes holes in the procedures of State burial.
“You needed to explain to the public what it means to accord someone a State burial, it is extremely expensive but everyday you were pleading, alternating the budget, I will give you an example, Friday will be a public holiday,If you look at the money we collect as URA, it means we will loose more than 60 billion that day, but because of the incompetence you only focus on 1.8 billion shillings, scandalizing the Hon Oulanyah” he said
Ssemujju also attributed the scandalizing of Oulanyah’s burial on the decision by President Museveni to appoint extremely very ordinary people to key positions, saying some appointees are overwhelmed by power even if they are required to handle simple things like organizing state funerals.
