Kampala, Uganda | URN | Some of the presidential candidates are crying out to the Electoral Commission [EC] to meet the feeding expense of their security detail. Independent presidential candidate John Katumba was the first to raise this concern.
He asked EC to use part of the Shillings 20 million paid by the candidates as nomination fees to feed the security officers deployed to guard the candidates.
“I don’t have money to feed these security officers, why can’t the EC use part of the money I paid to feed them? asked Katumba. Adding that,” I am even failing to buy fuel for the car, some of us will conduct the campaigns on boda-bodas.”
Independent presidential candidates, Willy Mayambala and Joseph Kabuleta have also raised similar concerns. Mayambala who has failed to raise money for his campaign posters and vehicles says he is finding it hard to facilitate the bodyguards.
“Some of us financially we’re not stable, personally I have failed to raise money for my campaign posters. I am only surviving on the funding from well-wishers,” Mayambala told this publication. In addition to failure to feed the guards and his campaigning team, Mayambala says he even doesn’t have a place to accommodate them.
Asked why he came into a race that requires people with a strong financial muscle, Mayambala says he was pushed by the desire to change the mindset of the poor people who think elections are for the rich people who don’t even know the challenges of the common man like him.
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Joseph Kabuleta, another independent presidential candidate says there is need for EC to reconsider their arrangements and start feeding the security details because candidates are already overwhelmed by the high cost of the digital campaigns.
However, police says the officers deployed to guard presidential candidates are fully facilitated by the force and Electoral Commission [EC] because they are on special duties.
Charles Twine, the Spokesperson of the Criminal Investigations Directorate says the officers are supposed to use part of their allowance to provide for their needs.
