By Alice Lubwama
The speaker of parliament Rebecca Kadaga says she is considered as one of the fools in the country because she is not corrupt.
While launching the parliamentary forum on Ethics and integrity at parliament, Kadaga noted that she has worked for many years but the property she owns is just one eighth of what those who have worked for only two years.
"Actually when you don’t steal in this country you’re a fool, so am one of the fools.” She said.
Kadaga called for integrity clubs in schools and use of small circles in the communities such as Niginas to promote integrity.
She has also attacked Mps for lack of morals while dispensing their work. She said that some even jump of out the vans on their way to the field after signing for allowances.
"You go to the committee sign, you leave and go for a workshop you sign there and go for another one, the whole day, Hon members that’s all corruption," She emphasized.
She has asked the members of parliament to work as examples to the society, adding that the integrity lessons begin with young people, for the country to have a generation which has integrity and respect ethics.
In a message read for the minister of education Janet Museveni during the same function by the minister in charge of general duties in the office of the president Mary Karoro Okurut, she said that her ministry was in the process of integrating the study of ethical valve into the school curriculum and this will be compulsory at both primary and secondary level, so that children are taught the ethical valve when they are still young.
The ministry of Education has also started on the process of introducing professional ethics and integrity courses at tertiary institution at the university in a way of promoting ethics and integrity.
The chairperson of the parliamentary forum on Ethics and integrity also former Ethics minister James Nsaba Buturo said that lack of character had destroyed ethics and integrity of the country because people who are supposed to promote the law are the ones violating it, citing the traffic officers and other government officials.
Nsaba Buturo also said it was a shame to the country to see drug addicts in Uganda praised as role models to the young generation, appealing to colleagues in parliament to step and lead the struggle to streamline morals in the country to give it a bright future despite their political differences.
"It’s difficult to say that all is well in our nation, if this trend continues we are going to witness a situation that is very nasty for all of us." He said.