The government granted the wish of older persons to be represented in Parliament to enhance democracy and protect senior citizens from children who pester their parents for inheritance, President Museveni has said.
Presiding over the International Day for the Older Persons at State House, Nakasero on Thursday, the President said the elderly had been reporting to him that they were being attacked by their children who demand what they have worked for.
“I am glad the older person will be represented in the 11th Parliament. This representation of special interest group is premised on the principle of equal representation of all persons in Uganda that was ushered in by the NRM government. I get surprised when people talk about democracy in the world, there is no democratic country in the country than Uganda. We have created other group representatives in Parliament so we said let us have the older persons also,” Mr Museveni said.
Currently, Parliament has five groups of representative, including 10 soldiers, five youth, 112 women, five workers, and five persons with a disability which brings representation of special interest groups to 137.
Two months ago, Parliament passed into law the Parliamentary Elections (Amendment) Bill 2020 which provides for representation of the older persons from central, eastern, northern, and western regions and one national representative.
In the law, the representatives will be elected by the Elders’ Council at district level. But one of these MPs, according to the arrangement must be a woman as a way of promoting gender equality.
The Electoral Commission has since rolled out the programme for the elections into the general roadmap of the 2021 General Election.
Mr Museveni also asked the national Covid-19 taskforce to give priority to the older person when giving out aid and other safety equipment since the category is more susceptible to contracting Covid-19.
“I would also like to ask all the older persons to take keen note of the SOPs (standard operating procedures) which have been provided by the Ministry of Health. I also would like to ask the task force to take these people as a priority when giving out items like the government masks,” he said.
The President also advised the older persons to encourage the youth to get involved in wealth creation to bridge the gap of the 68 per cent of the population who are still stuck in subsistence agriculture.
“All those who want to get rich must get into the money economy which included, commercial agriculture, factories, services, and ICT. Most Ugandans are underdeveloped because they are sleeping and spectating what others are doing. We need to wake them up to start working,” Mr Museveni said.
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