MPs forgo a day’s allowance

Dodoma. Members of Parliament unanimously voted to donate their day’s allowances yesterday to alleviate hardships that victims of Saturday’s Kagera earthquake are facing.

Each of the MPs who attended yesterday’s session will thus forgo of their Sh220,000 allowance after the House decided to temporarily suspend morning sessions for 30 minutes and deliberate on the natural disaster that has so far killed 17.

It all started like a battle of wits over knowledge of Parliamentary Standing Orders when several MPs stood up – immediately after the end of the questions and answers session - and demanded Deputy Speaker’s guidance on the right course for the House to take.

At one point, the matter became so itense that it almost tore Parliament along political lines as the number of MPs, demanding that the issue be debated kept rising as Deputy Speaker Tulia Ackson pondered on the way forward.

“Honourable Halima Mdee, will you please show a bit of respect to the one chairing the House proceedings,” said Dr Ackson as she demanded order in the House.

Finally, Dr Ackson allowed Mr Rashid Shangazi (Mlalo - CCM) to move a motion and allow the House to deliberate on the matter. After the motion was moved, Dr Ackson allowed six MPs to contribute to the debate before she asked the lawmakers to adopt the motion.

Those who deliberated on the issue were Mr Shangazi, Mr Masoud Salim (Mtambile - CUF), Mr John Heche (Tarime Rural - Chadema), Ms Zainabu Vullu (Special Seats – CCM), Prof Anna Tibaijuka (Muleba - CCM) and Mr Charles Tizeba, the legislator for Buchosa who doubles as minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Development.

The MPs demanded a complete report from the government with regard to the steps that it has taken to help those affected by the 5.7-magnitude earthquake that also left over 250 injured.

“As rightly pointed out by Honourable Masoud (Mr Salim), we want the government to report what it has so far done to help these people. Someone has worked tirelessly for 20 years to build a house but abruptly, that hard work is reduced to rubble within a few minutes. We are not competing with each other here; all we want is to know the government’s commitment on how it intends to help such people,” said Mr Heche.