The public is right to have raised a great hue and cry about a 154 per cent increase in allowances for MPs.
The timing is bad. Instead of raising perks, MPs would have actually cut them and instead spend on public services such as infrastructure.

We are aware that Tanzania has for the past three years been going through power rationing while its roads and Dar es Salaam port are congested.

We are told that the government is unable to carry out development projects because it is strapped for cash. The shilling is weak, the inflation is on the increase and the budget deficit is widening.

Without having robust infrastructure, it will be difficult, nay impossible, to increase production for domestic consumption and export and have ample forex.

It is sad that the government seems to be entertaining some legislators’ selfish interests more than helping to improve the livelihoods of the majority poor Tanzanians. What a betrayal!
The 154 per cent allowance increase will achieve nothing positive for Tanzania.

On the contrary, it will weaken our already fragile economy and compound utilities problems. We should equitably distribute our meagre resources rather than benefiting few fat cats.

National Assembly Speaker Anne Makinda should know that MPs who are nagging her continually to have their allowances raised are simply greedy and indifferent to the suffering of the majority of poor people who have elected them to help uplift living standards of all Tanzanians.

We have unemployed people to take care of, we have single mothers to be taken care of, we have congested roads to work on, we have shortages of textbooks and other immediate, important matters to resolve.Surely we cannot achieve those goals if we keep on increasing allowances to around 300 legislators.

David Ntali,
Boston, US.

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