Full Education Upto University Covered As MPs Raise Shs265m to Educate Hon Hellen Nakimuli’s Daughter [now in S1]

By Mulengera Reporters

To his credit, Sports Minister Peter Ogwang on Wednesday successfully proposed that each of the 529 MPs gets a one off of Shs500,000 chopped from their salary for the month of April and the proceeds go towards the education of fallen NUP MP Hellen Nakimuli’s daughter Ssuubi currently in S1 at Kibuli SS. She is the only child the deceased single mother had and its ideal that her education doesn’t get disrupted because its the only way her future can be guaranteed.

After Speaker Anita Among, who presided over the tribute-paying session, had asked MPs to think about it to avoid anonymous media reports of ‘we were coerced’ like they did with late Jacob Oulanyah, the proposal was unanimously passed. This means, a total of Shs264,500,000/- will be realized without fail (529 MPs X Shs500,000); since the cash is deducted from the source as opposed to requiring every MP to physically deliver his or her contribution in cash to a certain office.

Parliament proposed to the family that the money doesn’t get diverted to anything else but strictly remains ring-fenced for the purpose of Ssuubi’s education up to university and beyond. Gratefully, Anita Among the Speaker had already paid Kibuli SS to make sure that the young girl (currently in S1) remains in the school up to S4.

To prove the money had been paid through her Bukedea Comprehensive SS and the Magogo Foundation, Anita Among handed over receipts to NUP MP Hassan Kirumira Lukalidde who is the legislator representing Luwero’s Katikamu county constituency where Nakimuli will be buried on Thursday.

Riding on the generosity with which thew family of Nakimuli (who Ogwang described as deserving because she always heroically represented Uganda’s Parliament in regional sporting competitions under the EAC games) had been treated, Minister Balaam Barugahara, speaking moments later, proposed that the family of the fallen Ngora Woman MP Stella Isodo, who belonged to FDC, also equally gets fundraised for. He proposed that another Shs500,000 gets deducted from each of the 529 MPs.

He was booed which indicated the MPs’ exhaustion towards such involuntary contributions, at the time when many of them are waiting their very last salary as MPs having lost their re-election races during the January general elections. Anita Among, who had read the legislators’ mood already, shielded Balaam by not insisting to push his proposal further.

In total shame and humiliation, a clearly deflated Balaam resumed his seat and the microphone was moved to someone else to eulogize Hellen Nakimuli whose goodness the House unanimously celebrated.

Theodore Ssekikubo, the deceased’s fellow Orthodox Christian (they were only two in a House of 529 MPs), said the praise with which both Museveni and Premier Nabbanja mourned Hellen Nakimuli, who was an outspoken MP from the opposition NUP, was indicative of the fact that being politically opposed to the mainstream view can (on its own) never diminish any legislator’s goodness or acceptability to leaders from across the political aisle.

He challenged colleagues on the NRM side to begin being very outspoken on social justice causes (just like Nakimuli was) as opposed to fearing that they will be blacklisted and fought by State House. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).