Committed MPs should live in their constituencies

SIR — On Friday, the New Vision published Joan Kamuhangire’s letter entitled “Janet Museveni is right about having a day off”. She defends Ruhama MP, Janet Museveni for suggesting that MPs should have Fridays off to visit their constituencies and dismisses Edward Okadapao as “not a serious person” for opposing it. I don’t think Okadapao is against MPs visiting their constituents. What he and most honest and rational people would disagree with is visiting them every week when there are more urgent issues to attend to in Parliament. How do we know the MPs will really travel upcountry every Friday? It seems to me that Mrs Museveni’s love for her constituents is rather excessive and one wonders how the people of Ruhama survived before God sent her to represent them! There are many people I know whose spouses and children live upcountry while they themselves work in Kampala. I have never known them to travel to kabale, kabarole or Kisoro every week and yet their families are doing fine. Is Kamuhangire suggesting that constituents are more important to an MP than his or her own family or is it a question of affording it? Incidentally, there are people who work seven days a week! If there are MPs whose love for their constituents is so overwhelming, then Mrs Museveni should have suggested that MPs should live in their constituencies and travel to Kampala only when they are required to attend a plenary once in a while. By the way, are there no local councils in Ruhama? Local councillors too are representatives of the people and are in a better position to know what is taking place on a daily basis there. An MP is more of a national legislator than a local leader. But if Mrs Museveni so strongly feels that she can’t spend a week without visiting her beloved constituents, she can visit them on weekends when Parliament is not in session. I thank Kamuhangire for her spirited support of Mrs Museveni but in future I request her to find out the technical difference between a delegate and an MP before baptising them ‘semantics’. I would have loved to volunteer a lecture but I have things to do and places to go.

J. Mbaroraburora
Hoima