Okello’s dangling intestines a shame on army reps

On Thursday last week Parliamentarians were sent fleeing at the sight of a Uganda People’s Defence Forces soldier holding onto his intestines walked towards the entrance of the Parliamentary Building searching for “his MP” to appeal for help.

First the facts of the case; Pte Emin Okello is a serving UPDF soldier attached to the 105 Battalion. He was shot in battle at the Ugandan/Sudan border in June and thereafter admitted to Lacor Hospital in Gulu.

While at Lacor, it was discovered that he required surgery and specialist attention and was therefore transferred to the army referral hospital at Mbuya on September 18, 2006.

“The facts are that he has not been neglected and we are questioning why he left Mbuya where he was due to see the surgeon, to come to Parliament to see his area MP,” questioned the army spokesman, Maj. Felix Kulayigye.
Kulayigye further adds: “He is duly paid up to August like the rest of us, we have not yet been paid September salaries. It is therefore not correct that he had not been paid since May.”

Being a soldier, Okello belongs to a unique constituency with full representation in Parliament. With 10 MPs, the army has the biggest block interest group representation in the House but surprisingly Okello did not go in search of any of his ten MPs, but rather the one representing his county back home.

The ten army MPs represent a constituency of 55, 769, which is about 10,000 people per MP!
Why? One may be forced to ask? The answer is simple, the army MPs do not represent him as a constituent in the Parliament, they represent other interests and as we are told, they are in Parliament as “listening posts.”

At the rank of private, Okello earns a paltry Shs140, 320. You might argue that this is similar to what primary school teachers, until recently, have been earning. It’s also not different from the pay for policemen and prison warders. But the later groups have no representation in Parliament and have more sympathisers from the larger public.

The teachers have pushed their salary up by strikes, the army cannot go on strike. Were they to, “for just an hour”, a soldier friend told me, the consequences would be dire for everybody.

Our good army representatives as “listening posts” cannot even discuss the plight of their constituents in the House and that is possibly why none of them was at Parliament to listen to Okello’s story. Remember the Presidential Guard Brigade had just chased him away from President’s Office where he had first reported for help.

Given that they have no constituency to represent and are not allowed to speak in the House, can afandes Elly Tumwine, James Makumbi, Francis Okello, Sarah Mpabwa, Col. Ramathan Kyamulesire, Phenekas Katirima, Aronda Nyakairima, David Tinyefuza, Grace Kyomugisha and Julius Oketa, or would they, and the army High Command that sent them there, justify their presence in Parliament?