When Mukono Municipality MP Betty Nambooze suffered food poisoning, she started working on a legislation to regulate the consumption of liquors.
Much as she has so far not succeeded in convincing her parliamentary colleagues to grant her permission to table the bill, her efforts have not been in vain. At least MPs exercise some caution when asking for the drink that Nambooze is opposed to.
At a cocktail last Wednesday to launch the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence at Parliament’s parking lot, several MPs feared to touch alcohol lest they get noticed by Nambooze.
But some, like Lubaga North’s Moses Kasibante, could not miss something to soothe the throat; this saw MPs Mathias Mpuuga and James Kakooza warn Kasibante that he risked getting in trouble again with the Mukono municipality legislator.
Kasibante eventually walked away with his Makindye West counterpart Allan Ssewanyana, as if in fear of looking bad.
Wondering why most of the hard drinks that she had stocked had not been consumed, the chairperson of Uganda Women Parliamentary Association (UWOPA), Monicah Amoding, went around asking MPs to feel free and consume all the “wine” in stock but less than 10 MPs remained in the tents to empty the stock.
This should please Madame Teacher – as Nambooze is sometimes called.
When Hon Nandala suspected Byandala
For the feasibility study and designs of Entebbe Expressway, Chinese officials said last week, $15m was used.
This was revealed by the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) managing director, Zhong Wei Dong, when he appeared before the Committee on commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase).
Hearing the eyebrow-raising figure, former works minister and now committee member Abraham Byandala asked: “Did you say $15m or it was $1.5m?”
This forced Budadiri West MP Nathan Nandala-Mafabi onto his feet: “But you Byandala, haven’t you heard him say $15m? Why do you now want him to say $1.5m and how did you know that, yet they were the ones in charge?”
The committee members started whispering to each other, reminding colleagues how Byandala is in court over Katosi road fraud. Sensing danger for his member, Cosase chairman Abdu Katuntu moved in: “But Hon Nandala, Byandala is an engineer.”
It was after Katuntu’s intervention that committee members stopped murmuring. But they had been clearly given something to talk about outside the committee.
‘Dr’ Anywarach on Makerere
When some MPs last week launched a fundraising drive for money to pay Makerere University lecturers’ arrears, each had chance to justify his/her involvement in the drive.
However, when it came to Padyere MP Joshua Carter Anywarach, it was all laughter for his colleagues when he emphasized his point.
“Government ought to know that closing Makerere was uncalled for. That wasn’t a solution at all. The decision to close Makerere [university] is like a doctor treating diarrhoea closing the behind of the sufferer.
And a doctor can’t of course close the behind because it will mean tampering with the whole internal system and, therefore, failing all internal organs, which is called internal organ system failure,” Anywarach made his point amid laughter.
Given the expertise with which he explained the matter, some colleagues were heard joking that Anywarach would have made a good doctor. Not too late for a career change, Honourable.