Bukanga North Member of Parliament (MP) Nathan Byanyima has claimed that while other MPs can afford to sleep for six hours a night, he only sleeps for three hours as he uses the rest of the time to think about Uganda.
Byanyima, who is the chairperson of the Parliamentary ADHOC committee, stated that many MPs are not patriotic and only focus on issues that benefit them individually.
“We have been here longer, we sat here and we were hurried to privatize, we sat here up to midnight privatizing, we said we shouldn’t sell Uganda Commercial Bank unanimously, somebody said UCB will be sold on a Sunday and it was sold on Sunday. I don’t want us to go back to where we were. Some of you, when you are sleeping, some of us don’t sleep, we think about this nation. While you sleep for six hours, I sleep for 3 hours, but I think,” said Byanyima.
Byanyima is also proposing a reform that stops MPs from being appointed to ministerial positions.
The Ugandan legal framework currently allows for a Member of Parliament to double as a minister at the appointment of the president.
However, Byanyima argues that the joining of the legislature and the executive compromises the effective performance of the said arms of government.