Makindye West Member of Parliament, Allan Ssewanyana, has lashed out at president Museveni for not properly appreciating and rewarding Ugandan athletes who won medals at the just-concluded Tokyo Olympic games.
Ssewanyana said giving out a small car, house and Shs5million was not an appreciation enough to someone who has won an Olympic gold medal for the country.
He made the remarks as Parliament passed a motion to pay tribute to team Uganda for the performance in Tokyo.
The motion was moved by Moses Magogo, MP Budiope East County.
Recently, President Museveni donated three new vehicles to Ugandan athletes who won medals at the just-concluded Tokyo Olympic Games.
The athletes rewarded included Joshua Cheptegei who won 5,000m gold medal and 10,000m, silver medal, Peruth Chemutai who won 1,500m women’s gold medal and Jacob Kiplimo who won a bronze in the 10,000m final making it the highest number of medals won in a single entry since 1956 when Uganda participated in the Olympic games.
However, speaking to Ug Mirror, Ssewanyana argued that the kind of appreciation and rewards that were given to these Olympic heroes were just meant to demoralise them, claiming that the president would have done more than that.
“These people appeared before Parliament and each member of Parliament was giving out his or her own view, some brought out the budget of consequences but for me, I said the president should respect sportsmen because we hear recently Gen Salim Saleh through wealth creation gave out billions to a few members of the music industry for doing nothing,” he told Ug Mirror in a brief interview.
Ssewanyana explained that when it comes to sports which helps Uganda to be recognised internationally, less attention is given which is very detrimental to the growth of sports in this country.
“We should hear about $2million being given to national Olympic committee or athletics team, like the way he {the president} did to Uganda cranes when it went to the African cup of nations. In my view I think that the gold at the Olympics is far much bigger than us being at the African cup of nations,” he said.
He stated that for more than 40 years Uganda has participated in the African cup of nations but only won three gold medals in the history which means that Olympics are far much better than anything that can promote Uganda.
“So, the president should give more money not just a small car and small house and little money. He should respect sportsmen in this country. They have given us free mileage internationally. You can see Rwanda giving more $35million to Arsenal to promote itself, ” he said.