Western NRM concerned Youth slam LOP Senyonyi’s boycott of regional Parliamentary sittings

The Mbarara based Western NRM Concerned Youth have come up to join the rest of Members of Parliament to criticize the Leader of Opposition in the Parliament of Uganda, Joel Senyonyi and some of his Opposition colleagues for the decision to boycott the forthcoming of regiginal parliament sitting that will be held in different Cities in Uganda,

On 17th May 2024, the Speaker of Parliament Anita Annet Among while presiding over plenary, she announced plans to hold parliamentary sittings in four different regions of Uganda. The first Regional sitting will start with Northern in Gulu City as host on 29th and 30th August 2024 and the rest will be Western in Mbarara City, Eastern in Mbale City and Central in Masaka City. About Shs 20 billion is expected to be spent as it was put in the Budget and each region will take 5B.

According to Speaker Among, the move to have regional parliamentary sittings offers an opportunity to witness first-hand challenges affecting common people across the country.

However, later after the Speaker’s announcement of regional parliamentary sittings, the Leader of Opposition Joel Senyonnyi started mobilization of fellow  Opposition Members of Parliament to have a decision of boycotting these regional sittings, citing Shs 20 billion budgeted for the regional parliamentary sittings as waste of taxpayers’ money.

Western NRM Concerned Youth, applauded the speaker of Parliament and the parliament entirely for coming up with an idea to conduct regional parliamentary sittings. During a press briefing, these youth revealed that the constitution of Uganda gives the Speaker the mandate to conduct parliament in any place he or she wants. Therefore they believe that regional sittings will give exposure to all members of parliament into different regions which will enable them to identify the key challenges and the progress of development in different areas.

Herbert Nangumya, Leader of  the Western NRM Concerned Youth says that the Members of Parliament especially the Opposition MPs who are against the move of Regional Parliamentary that is a wastage of resources are wrong and they don’t wish development in the areas they represent.

“The money which the parliament is going to use was allocated to parliament by the same MPs who are opposing it. Even if the parliament does not move to those regions for parliamentary sittings still that money is going to stay in that parliament, it will not work on the hospitals, it will not work on the roads because the money was allocated to parliament. I believe that members of parliament who are against this, are just seeking for politics of relevance and sympathy from the citizens. It was very wrong for the Leader of Opposition to condemn these sittings when we actually know that top management of parliament are the ones who came up with this decision of which the Leader of Opposition is among the top members of parliament. Opposition has commissioners who are part of the top management of parliament, so aren’t they contradicting themselves? This shows how Joel Senyonyi is a betrayer” said Nangumya, the Leader of Western NRM Youth

Nangumya also appealed to the Members of the communities to work hand in hand with the their area members of parliament to raise regional problems so that when the parliament comes in their respective regions, members of parliament can rightfully present the challenges and problems affecting their people in order for the parliament to get the solution on how those problems can be solved.

Edgar Akampa, the vice Chairman of Western NRM Concerned Youth that contains more than 200 concerned Youth, told Journalists that the majority of communities are going to benefit once these Regional Parliamentary sittings come across.

“If they say they are going to come in Western Uganda particularly, we expect challenges like Regional Referral Hospital Mbarara to be talked about, we expect challenges like Katete bridge also to be talked about. So these people first of all we encourage them to come, because the moment they come and maybe the gallery is too big to interact with these members of parliament apart from feelings that our views go there in Kampala and some are not heard, we believe this is an opportunity for us to air out our local views.

We have issues of poor electricity infrastructure, poor road network in different areas mainly in our region, so let’s embrace this move by parliament and precisely we are going to benefit from them. We also expect our Members of Parliament to be having the very big issues  that are concerning their constituencies. Like the Issue of Mbarara Referral Hospital that serves the whole of Western Uganda but we have seen there cases of poor bedding, no sufficient drugs and things of that sort” said Akampa

Akampa adds that those people who are opposing the Speaker of Parliament and the parliament entirely about the Regional Parliament Sittings issue are not looking at the bigger picture.  “They are looking at the Shs 5B that will be spent per region yet the money was allocated and is already in the budget. This is an opportunity for us despite the  fact that some are actually discouraging it, if you look at the bigger picture, these regions are going to benefit” said Akampa.