Ugandan women MPs push for in-house beauty parlour amid corruption scandals

The call, led by State Minister Beatrice Anywar for an in-house salon is rationalised as an incentive that would encourage women legislators to come early and spend more time in Parliament.

According to Anywar, maintaining their appearance is part of their professional presence and, by extension, their effectiveness as public representatives.

During a parliamentary session on April 11, she stated that even though the house is content with the establishment of a gym in the building, only a few women use it due to an obvious dishevelment of their hair when they are through with bodily exercise.

"One of them is myself; my hair and nails and whatever are part of the woman," Ms Anywar said. "What I am really saying is that we ladies can come early, and spend more time in the salon and then the house."

In recent years, the Ugandan Parliament has drawn considerable attention due to a string of unusual requests. One such request is the recent proposal for a flyover that would connect Bowman House, which houses offices for several MPs to parliamentary grounds.

The rationale behind the proposed flyover is the necessity for a safe passage between Bowman House and the Parliament Building.

Meanwhile, an online protest in March exposed numerous corruption - misuse of public funds, deteriorating hospitals, and potholed streets plaguing Kampala, Uganda's capital city.

The social media campaign, known as "#UgandaParliamentExhibition", gained traction on social media platform X and relied on leaked official documents that were framed as an "exhibition," presented through a series of posts, highlighting contentious issues.

The campaign claimed that Speaker of Parliament Anita Among received approximately $894,500 in per diems and entertainment allowances between July 2023 and January 2024. This amount, deemed extraordinary in a country struggling with budget implementation challenges and enduring revenue shortages, raised significant concerns.

On the other hand, Uganda still struggles with healthcare infrastructure. According to an Afrobarometer report in 2021, the country's health sector was falling short of a 15% budget allocation recommended by the Abuja Declaration, a millennium declaration, adopted by 189 heads of state in 2000 to improve social and economic conditions in the world's poorest countries.

Additionally, the report highlights several significant hurdles confronting Uganda's healthcare system. These include severely underpaid healthcare workers, a scarcity of medical personnel, inadequate supplies of medicines and essential equipment in government facilities, a shortage of hospital beds, high expenses, and limited accessibility to healthcare services, notably in rural regions.