The Speaker of Parliament, Annet Anita Among has asked the Attorney General to advise the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) and the Public Service that parliament is an independent institution which is not answerable to either of the two commissions.
Speaker Among was reacting to a request by the EOC and Public Service to be handed a report detailing how much each member of parliament and staff of parliament are paid.
She has instead just rubbished the two commissions’ requests saying Parliament is an independent body, and that its workers and legislators aren’t civil servants.
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“I also got information from my Clerk (Adolf Mwesige) where Equal Opportunities Commission and Public Service have written to the Clerk that they want a report on how much each Member of Parliament gets, how much the staffs of Parliament get; I think people are forgetting separation of power; the Uganda Parliamentary Commission is a standalone, we don’t belong to Equal Opportunities Commission, we aren’t civil servants for Public Service to start asking for salaries of MPs”, Among noted.
In response, the Attorney General replied, “In a nutshell, yes, because I am telling them that they can only compare where you say, that men shall have 10% and women shall have 5% that is the marginalization they deal with. They aren’t entitled to compare everything and anything. They are supposed to compare marginalization because of gender, sex, disability, and other matters created by history.”
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Kiryowa added: “If we aren’t careful, we may start saying that we now have Equal Opportunities because everyone must drive the same car, everyone must be of the same height. That wasn’t the Equal Opportunities that was anticipated here. It was supposed to ensure that we don’t write laws, or implement policies that one gender shall be given better treatment as opposed to another gender.”
However, Ssemujju Nganda, the Kira Municipality MP rejected the arguments fronted by both the Speaker and the Attorney General, arguing that Equal Opportunities Commission can only establish vulnerabilities of Ugandan when they compare with the salaries earned by MPs and staff of Parliament.
A Ugandan member of parliament’s basic salary is approximately sh11m which translates to around sh6m/= after deductions. However, their total emoluments are much higher. With estimates ranging from sh192m per year.
In addition to their basic salary, MPs’ various allowances include Housing allowances (6.5m/=), constituency support fee (17.03m/=), town running allowances (1.945m/=), Fuel allowances (ranging from 10.3m/= to 31m/= per month).
These allowances and benefits significantly increase their overall compensation, making them among the most highly paid legislators in Africa.