NRM caucus meets over Kayunga Woman MP

By Joyce Namutebi        
                    
President Yoweri Museveni on Monday held a closed door meeting with NRM Caucus MPs at State House, Entebbe to try and agree on the new proposed budget figures for the Ministry of Health.

Sources who attended the meeting also said the President invited the MPs to discuss the fate of Kayunga Woman MP Idah Nantaba, who was rejected as minister by the appointments committee.

The appointments committee of parliament last week finally approved Professor Tarsis Kabwegyere as minister for Gender, Labor and Social Development.

The committee had earlier rejected him saying he was not fit to hold the Gender ministry since he has been insenstive to women causes.

The source revealed that the committee had completely rejected the appointment of MP Idah Nantaba as junior minister for lands on grounds of disrespect to Parliament. Although the committee confirmed her academic papers as being genuine, the source says that the committee members said that Nantaba is disrespectful to parliament and only values the president. She therefter resolved to appeal to the appointing authority for intercession.

Yesterday's meeting was bent on MPs pressing the government to find additional Sh260 for the health sector.

The health budget this year stands at Sh859b including donor money. This, according to Dr. Sam Lyomoki, is only 8% of the national budget and does not meet the Abuja declaration which talks of 15%. Lyomoki is chairperson of the health committee.


The legislators are concerned by the continued death of mothers and children in the country. They are concerned that despite the fact that the government has invested heavily in health infrastructure, many health facilities in the country are not functional due to lack of health workers and drugs.

Last week, Parliament was pre-occupied with trying to ensure that additional money is found to enhance the health budget to enable it deliver services to the wananchi effectively.

After the committee on health presented its report to Parliament, the House referred the matter to the budget committee which sat and identified non- productive identified areas from which to effect cuts, according to Lyomoki.

Opposition MPs the New Vision talked to insisted that the additional money for health must be found. Sebuliba Mutumba (DP) said if the NRM MPs come back from the meeting and backtrack on what parliament agreed on they would have betrayed their voters.

Jesca Ababiku (Independent) she believes that the country has enough money and that it is important to prioritise.

On Friday, a group of civil society organisations in health petitioned Speaker of Parliament over the matter. "As a widely recognized leader and champion of maternal health, we request that you clearly state the urgent need to find a minimum of Sh260b in the budget for the recruitment and enhancement of facilitation of professional health workers."

In the petition handed over to the Deputy Speaker, Jacob Oulanyah by Robinah Kaitiritimbwa from the Uganda National Health Consumer Organisation, the CSOs noted that the existing skilled human resource cannot effectively deliver the Uganda National Minimum Healthcare Package resulting in high maternal mortality and other problems.

They requested the speaker's office to seek clarification from the ministry of Public Service regarding the "unjustified ban on recruitment of health workers in the country." They demanded recruitment of additional 2,000 health workers, particularly midwives.

Areas identified included workshops and seminars, advertising and public relations, welfare and entertainment, printing and photocopy, travel in land and abroad, fuel, lubricants, vehicle maintenance and hire of venues.
Lyomoki explained that the budget committee decided that 30% of funds be got from these non-productive areas for the remaining eight months of the budget which yielded Sh39.2b.

"Before they presented their (budget) report, they passed the matter to the Minister of finance, who presented it to Cabinet, but Cabinet was not accepting to effect cuts in those areas," he said.