By Patrick Onyango
Oct 23, 2003 - Monitor
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PARLIAMENT - Mr Aggrey Awori has urged Ugandans to think about President Yoweri Museveni's ouster before his second term expires instead of debating the third term. "Should we continue to debate the lifting of the two term limit to enable Museveni contest in 2006 when he is already abusing the office", the Samia Bugwe North MP told a news conference at Parliament yesterday. "The most urgent debate should be whether Museveni should remain in office till 2006 given his total lack of respect for it as provided for in the Constitution," he said. Awori toyed loudly with the idea of impeaching Mr Museveni after the parliamentary recess. "I'm going to consult my colleagues whether we don't have enough evidence to start an impeachment process," Awori said. Awori was one of the losers to Museveni in the 2001 presidential race. He said that he is an aviation expert and challenged the President to produce his academic papers if they are better than his (Awori's). "As minister plenipotentiary and extraordinary in the 80s [Obote II regime], I was responsible for, inter alia, arranging for the maintenance of presidential jets at Savanna Georgia, USA. Therefore I'm competent to talk about it," Awori said. Awori was reacting to Museveni's statement in the media defending his daughter's trip to Germany in the presidential jet to give birth. Museveni said that apart from Awori representing Uganda at the Olympic Games in 1960 and 1964 as a sprinter, the MP does not know anything about aviation. "I'm not all brawn and no brains as Museveni would like to think. I completed my honours degree at the prestigious Harvard University," he said. "I wonder what Museveni would say about his general degree in Dar es Salaam University! Maybe it was honorary but definitely not honours! Too much time was spent with Frelimo in the bushes of Mozambique," Awori said. The Presidential Press Secretary, Ms Mary Okurut, told The Monitor that Awori has lost the principle of positive opposition and he is bent on discrediting the President. "He is just out to paint the President as a very corrupt person," Okurut said. "What is this kind of opposition?" she said. Okurut said that she will give a more detailed reply to Awori's allegations after she has internalised them. "The minimum cost of maintaining a standard jet per hour in the air is $1,980 on dry lease excluding fuel, consumables, over-flight fees and crew. When you add fuel, it cannot be less than $2,985 per hour. If you add other costs you're approaching nearly $3,200 per hour," he said. He said that Museveni's jet is not a "standard no frills jet". He said it has other accessories such as missile deflectors on the engines and other security gadgets for communications and comfort of the passengers. Awori said that actually the two controversial trips -for Museveni's daughter and his daughter in-law to deliver babies cost more than $100,000 - if shopping by other family members who stopped in London at Harrods or Marks and Spencer is included. Awori attacked Museveni for deploying a Russian made M-18 helicopter to ferry non-essential items for him at a cost of $500 per hour, instead of deploying it to fight rebels in north and northeastern Uganda. "Is a utility chopper known as `state house boda boda or matatu," he said. "This is the one you see everyday over the skies of Kampala ferrying obushera, bottled water, milk, matoke, toilet paper, files, ministers and other friends and relatives of the President to whatever destination he may have pitched camp overnight," the legislator said. He said that when the rebels attacked Katakwi, UPDF officers reportedly failed to respond quickly because there was no transport and yet the boda boda helicopter was doing a "domestic milk-run". He said the chopper could have ferried more than 100 soldiers to save the situation. "My God what is this?" Okurut cried out. Awori said that Museveni is not only pampering his daughters with trips to Germany but also making them extremely rich at public expense. |
� 2003 The Monitor Publications
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